2.11 The Flood

Noah finished building the ship and waited for Allah's authorization. The came of Allah arrived. It rained heavily until the sky seems a sieve that could not hold water. Water flowed and surrounded people and everything: it reached every area on the earth so that none of the existing creatures survived. ALLAH revealed to Noah to take with him a pair of every animal and bird, a male and a female, as well as the people who believed in him, because the flood could cover the earth and neither man nor beast would survive.

Seeing him taking these creatures to the ark, his people again laughed loudly: "Noah must have gone out of his head! What is he going to do with the animals?" Almighty ALLAH narrated to us:
"So it was till then there came Our Command and the oven gushed forth (water like fountains from the earth). We said: "Embark therein, of each kind two (male and female), and your family, except him against whom the Word has gone forth, and those who believe," And none believed him except a few." (Ch 11: 40).

The ark carried Noah, the believers, and animals safe from the flood. However, the disbelievers outside the ark were trying, everyone on his manner, to escape from Allah's punishment ignorant of the fact that there is no refuge from Allah except in Him.

2.11 The Flood

Ibn Kathir reported that Islamic scholars differ concerning the number of survivors on board. According to Ibn Abbas, there were eighty men and women. Ka'b Al-Ahabar, however, claims that they were seventy-two. They also differ concerning the destiny of Noah's wife. Some of them maintain that she died before the deluge. Others postulate that she was among those who drowned due to her disbelief. She bore all of Noah's sons: Ham, Sam, Yafith, Yam (Biblical Can'an), and 'Abir.