'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "So if you turn away, then I have not asked you for any reward. My reward is only with Allah, and I have been commanded to be among the Muslims." "But they denied him, so We saved him and those with him in the ark, and We made them successors, and We drowned those who denied Our signs. So look at how was the end of the warned ones." The meaning is: If you do not respond to my call and you disbelieve in it and turn away from it, and turning away originally means with the body, and it is used for turning away from meanings. He says: I have not asked you for a reward for that nor for wealth, so there is no cutting off from you for me nor deficiency in my will. My reward is only with the One who sent me. Nafi' and Abu 'Amr read, with a difference from him: "My reward" with the 'ya' being silent, and the A'rāji, Talhah ibn Musarif, 'Isa, and Abu 'Amr read: "My reward is" with the 'ya' being opened. Abu Hatim said: They are two languages, and the reading with the silence is in all of the Qur'an. Then he informed them that Allah commanded him to be in Islam and the straight religion, which is the oneness of Allah and acting in obedience to Him and preparing for meeting Him. And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "But they denied him" is news from Allah, exalted and glorified is He, about the state of the people of Noah who denied him. And within that news is a threat to the disbelievers with Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and a striking example for them, meaning: You are in the state of these in denial, so you will be in their state of punishment and torment. And "the ark" is the ship, and the interpreters and the people of narrations agree that the ship of Noah was one. And "the ark" is the singular form of it, and the plural form is the same. And this has been explained in "Al-A'raf." And "successors" is the plural of "successor." And His saying: "So look" is addressing the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, and all of creation shares in its meaning. And in this verse, it indicates that He drowned all who denied the signs of Allah that Noah brought, peace be upon him. And it also implies that He warned them, so they were warned. If all the people of the earth were as some people said, then Noah and Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon them, would be equal in being sent to the people of the earth. This is refuted by the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "I have been given five things that no one before me was given." And this view suggests that the mission of Noah, peace be upon him, and the drowning was only among the people of a region, not among all the people of the earth.