Al-Mu'minun 28: “When you, and the ones with you settle on the ship, say, “Praise be to Allah who has saved us from a nation of oppressors.””

Surah Al-Mu'minun, verse 28. Allah Almighty makes known to Noah (peace be upon him), in this verse, that he should pray, how he should pray. How he should pray. Now, when Allah Almighty is going to afflict a town or destroy it, He takes those He loves out of that town. As I told you before, Salih (peace be upon him), Lot (peace be upon him), Noah (peace be upon him) too, and many prophets He first took out of the town before the destruction. After they had reached safety, He destroyed their peoples. Here too, when He destroyed the people of Noah (peace be upon him) with the flood, Allah Almighty instructs Noah (peace be upon him) to build a ship. And He teaches him how to build the ship.

So Noah, boarding the ship (peace be upon him) together with his close ones, also takes a pair of every creature, of course, so that the generations propagate. While the ship is moving on the water, what does He say? When you and those with you have settled in the ship, in the ship, say: praise be to Allah, who saved us from the community of wrongdoers, He says. How beautifully He has him pray. We shall pray to Allah Almighty. Only for the community of wrongdoers? We shall praise Him for the blessings He has given. For the beautiful life He has given; that, because of His spirit, which He gave us as worthy, He created us as the noblest of His creatures — however much we thank Him, for these blessings our Lord has given us it is not possible for us to fully render the thanks due.

Yes. Allah Almighty makes known to Noah (peace be upon him) how he should pray to Him, by revelation. What is revelation? The verse. The verse. When you and those with you have boarded the ship, say: praise be to Allah, who saved us from the community of wrongdoers. Allah could have exposed Noah and those with him to the same fate, could have destroyed them along with them. In a verse He says the following. When We afflict a town, together with those there, that is, together with the good, We destroy them all, He says. By the good people here, what is meant by good people: they know Allah and His Messenger but did not warn people.

They did not enjoin what is right. These. Now, in that case, a prophet and, together with those who believe in the prophet, Allah Almighty surely saves the good in that town. For instance, it need not necessarily be a prophet. Allah Almighty has servants on earth with a duty. They too warn people. Those who obey those servants with a duty — and when a calamity is about to come upon that town, surely, in that town, just as Allah Almighty takes that righteous servant of His out of the town, He also protects those who obey him.

Yes.

But Allah, to His servants, to whoever obeys Him, is very merciful and very compassionate. Therefore Allah saved those who worship Him. As for those saved, since they were not together with the community of wrongdoers and did not perish with them, that they should offer praise and glory to Allah Almighty was made known. Indeed: water springs up from the earth, from the sky rain pours down, the ship starts to lift off; he has taken a pair of each. Even his son, even Noah's son does not board the ship. Noah says to his son: O my dear son, come, everywhere will be under water, you will drown. I'll climb to the top of a tree, he says; my son, he says, that too will be under water; when he says, I'll climb to the top of a high rock, a wave comes, strikes, he drowns there. Yes. Later, if its turn comes, at the end we will tell it, inshallah.

Those who rebelled against Allah and denied His Prophet and the hereafter — how terrible their end has been. Besides the suffering they endured in the world, in the hereafter there is eternal torment and cruelty.

May Allah protect us all from such an end, we have said. In the world, torment and suffering come to an end. Deaths come to an end. It is not eternal. And however much torment you suffer in the world, at some point the body cannot bear it. A person passes away, dies. He is freed from the torment. But the hereafter is not like that. In the hereafter, since spirit, nafs and life are one, and since the spirit has no death, people who turned their backs on Allah and passed on to the hereafter, when they enter hell, their eternal bed and abode — "Do not go toward the fire prepared for the unbelievers," our Lord, warning (?) Islam, has prepared the fire for the unbelievers.

Here, a candle's light or a matchstick's light, when you hold it to a person's hand or any part of the body, if he cannot bear it, how will he bear that fire in the hereafter? If a person thinks of his future, his life in the world he will arrange accordingly. Who is the fool? The fool: those who do not learn from the past, who take no lessons from the events appearing before their eyes, who see the truth and turn their backs on the truth — such people are fools. In the world he eats, drinks, enjoys himself. As if he himself deserved all these many blessings given in the world, as if, in return for his due, for his own living, he had gained those things through his own being and had earned them — that person, if he thinks a little more deeply: your Lord who created you, because of what you need, has put those things at your disposal.

Those foods, those animals He has put at your disposal. And to eat and drink with pleasure from what He created, to see oneself as having deserved it, and to take them and turn one's back on the One who created them is foolishness itself. And these are the fools. He secures his living in the world and does not think of the hereafter.