Hūd

وَاُوحِيَ إِلَي نُوحٍ أَنَّهُ لَن يُؤْمِنَ مِن قَوْمِكَ إِلاَّ مَن قَدْ ءَامَنَ فَلاَ تَبْتَئِسْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ

36. “And it was revealed unto Noah: ‘None of your people will believe except those who have already believed, so do not grieve as to what they used to do’.”

The previous holy verses thoroughly covered the stage of inviting the people to the religion on Divine unity and Noah’s indefatigable propagation and dissemination of the Divine message which he accomplished using all the devices he had available. This verse deals with the second stage of the campaign; the final stage of the propagation phase. Here, the second phase of the campaign has not been dealt with, it is the end of the propagation stage, and the second stage is the preparation for the Divine purge.

At first, we read that it was revealed to Noah that no one else except those who had already adhered to him would become believers. The verse says:

“And it was revealed unto Noah: ‘None of your people will believe except those who have already believed...”

Reference is here made to the fact that alignments had already been made and finalized and no further call or reformation would have been useful, hence a state of readiness for the upheaval and the purge must be declared. Towards the end of the verse, consoling Noah, the Qur’an implies that he should not despair at all despite whatever wrongful deeds they used to do. The verse says:

“…so do not grieve as to what they used to do’.”

In the meantime, one can infer from this verse that Allah made those aspects of the knowledge of the secrets of the Unseen that He had deemed necessary, accessible so that His prophet should know.