God subsequently sent Noah as His messenger. He was granted an exceptionally long life of nine hundred and fifty years. During this extended period, he continued to show people the right path, generation after generation. Only a few people heeded his words. The rest persisted in their sinful ways. Then, in accordance with the ways of God, a huge flood engulfed them by way of punishment. Noah and his small band of followers were saved in an ark, while all the rest were drowned.

At that time, human population was probably concentrated only in the region of Asia known as Mesopotamia. The men and women saved in the wake of this flood settled afterwards in other parts of the world. Their race multiplied until it spread over the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.

After the death of Noah, his people continued for a considerable time to adhere to the divine path shown by him. But again degeneration set in amongst later generations and they deviated from the path of monotheism and justice. God’s messengers—the Quran has mentioned twenty-six by name—continued to come for several thousand years. The corpus of Hadith informs us that about one hundred thousand messengers came to the world. In this way a long period elapsed between Adam and Jesus, when God’s messengers continued to come to the world in almost every generation. But each time only a few individuals believed in them. The majority continued to reject these prophets in every age.