And when glorified and exalted is He completed the story of Lot, which is related to the story of the Friend (Abraham) upon them be peace, with the stones of sulfur, and to the story of Noah upon him be peace, with the water by which his seven towns were submerged, He followed that with the story of Noah upon him be peace, who was given [from] the water what was not given to anyone else, for it submerged all the earth, its near and far, its low and high. So He said: ﴿And Noah when﴾ meaning remember him when ﴿he called﴾ meaning he called upon his Lord ﴿Indeed, I am overcome, so help me﴾ [Al-Qamar: 10] and ﴿And do not leave upon the earth any of the disbelievers﴾ [Noah: 26] and similar supplications.

And since his supplication did not encompass the past times, He established the connection and said: ﴿Before﴾ meaning before Lot and those who preceded him ﴿So We answered﴾ meaning We intended the response and brought it into existence by Our greatness ﴿to him﴾ in that call; [Then He caused the following statement to be the result of that -]: ﴿So We saved him﴾ [meaning by Our greatness a great salvation -] ﴿and his family﴾ those who remained steadfast in Islam and their connection to it ﴿from the great distress﴾ from harm and drowning; Abu Hayyan said: and distress is the utmost grief, and taking of the soul, and here it refers to drowning, He expressed it with the first of the conditions that takes the drowning person.