“And the people of Noah...

“And the people of Noah, when they rejected the messengers, We drowned them and made them a sign for mankind; and We have prepared for the unjust a painful chastisement.” The Qur’an implies that when the people of Noah denied the Divine messengers Allah drowned them and made their fate as a lesson for human beings.

The verse says: “And the people of Noah, when they rejected the messengers, We drowned them and made them a sign for mankind...” It is interesting that the Holy Qur’an says: “...they rejected the messengers (not only one messenger)...” For, there is not any difference in principles between the call of messengers and prophets of Allah. If one of them is denied, it means that all of them are denied.

“And the (tribes of) ‘Ad and Thamūd and the men of Ar-Rass, and many generations between them.” 39. “And unto each of them We did give examples, and every one (of them) We did destroy with utter extermination.” The Arabic word /qurūn/ is the plural form of the word /qarn/ that, in fact, means a group of people who live together in a certain time. Also it is applied to 40 years up to 100 years.

The Qur’anic word /tatbir/ means to lose dignity and respect and to get overthrown in a way that it leads to destruction.[^1] So, in this verse, it says: “And the (tribes of) ’Ad and Thamūd and the men of Ar-Rass, and many generations between them.” The tribe of ‘Ad is the people of Hūd, the Divine prophet, who was appointed in the land of ’Ahqaf, (Yemen).

The tribe of Thamūd is the people of Salih, the Divine prophet, who was appointed in the land of Wad-il-Qura, a place between Medina and Damascus. There are many things cited about the people of Ar-Rass in commentaries: they are people of Shuayb (Jethro). Ar Rass is a city in Yamameh. Or it is a place in ’Antakiyah, Al-Zakakih, or Aras River in Iran. But in the book ‘Uyūn-i-Akhbar ur-Rida we read: Imam Rida (as) said: “A person asked Imam Ali (as) about them.