The mission of the Prophet Noah was the same as the mission of all the other prophets. All the prophets, from the Prophet Adam to the Prophet Muhammad, who came to this world, had the single mission of making man aware of the creation plan of God. They came to tell people that the present world is a testing ground.
Here, man has been given freedom in order to test him as to whether he makes proper use of his freedom or misuses it. This state of affairs will last for an appointed time. Thereafter, Doomsday will set in and in the words of the Quran: the present world will be substituted for another world, where those who succeed in the test will find a place in eternal paradise, while those who fail in the test will be doomed to hell.
For a long period of time, the Prophet Noah strove in every possible way to make his community understand the truth. A few people accepted his message but the majority did not pay any heed to him. Finally, a time came when it became clear that no one else would respond to his message. Indeed, society had become so thoroughly corrupt that any child born into it came under its corrupt influence.
At that time the Prophet Noah prayed in accordance with the will of God and that event came to pass which is known as the Great Flood. By God’s command the Prophet Noah built a large ark. Noah and the believers boarded the ark, while the unbelievers were drowned. The righteous were saved and held deserving of paradise, whereas the unrighteous were destroyed and deserved nothing but eternal damnation.
God gave an example in the form of this event to warn mankind of the impending flood at the end of human history, of a far more devastating nature, which has been termed ‘Doomsday’ in the Quran. After Doomsday, according to the divine plan, a second phase of human life will begin. This phase of the life in the hereafter will be both ideal and eternal.
Adam was the first man as well as first prophet. The Sharia (divine commandments) given by God to Adam was followed by his successors. But, gradually, decadence set in among them. This decline acquired the form of a personality cult.
Initially, they began to hold their elders, Wadd, Suwa‘, Yaghuth, Yauq, Nasr (71:23), in reverence after they had passed away. This feeling of reverence gradually gave way to a belief in their holiness. Finally, they began to carve statues of them and worship them.
When corruption reached this stage, God sent the Prophet Noah to them. According to a biblical statement, the Prophet Noah was descended from Adam in the tenth generation after him. God granted Noah an extraordinarily long life spanning 950 years. The chapter ‘Noah’ of the Quran gives the essence of dawah. Like other prophets, Noah’s call also focused basically on two things—monotheism and the world Hereafter.
But the people had become so corrupt that, except for a few people, they were not ready to accept the call of dawah. The Quran tells us about their response to the dawah call. Their elders said to their followers, “Do not ever abandon your deities: abandon neither Wadd, nor Suwa, and neither Yaghuth, nor Yauq nor Nasr!” (71:23)
Such conclusions are the result of wrong comparisons. To Noah’s people, on the one hand, he was the prophet of the present, who appeared to them like a common man, while on the other, were their revered leaders of the past around whom their story-tellers had woven fascinating stories to exalt their status. In this self-styled comparison Noah appeared to be a common man (11:27). On the contrary, the personalities of the past appeared extraordinary, invested with greatness. It was this wrong comparison that had produced false conviction in them and they were emboldened to reject their contemporary prophet.
When it became clear that no more of Noah’s people were going to accept the faith, God willed that the evil people should be destroyed by a great flood and the good people saved. Archaeological evidence shows that the people of Noah lived in the region situated between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which was called Mesopotamia.
