The Exalted and Majestic says:

"He said, 'I will take refuge on a mountain that will protect me from the water.' He said, 'There is no protector today from the command of Allah except for whom He has mercy.' And the wave intervened between them, so he was among the drowned.'"

"And it was said, 'O earth, swallow your water, and O sky, cease!' And the water subsided, and the matter was decided, and it settled on the Judi. And it was said, 'Distance is for the wrongdoing people.'"

Noah's son thought that this rain and water was as usual. And his saying, "There is no protector," it is said regarding it that it is in the form of a doer. And his saying, "except for whom He has mercy," means: except for Allah, the Merciful. So "whom" is a metaphor for the name of Allah, glorified and exalted is He. The meaning is: there is no protector today except for the one who has mercy on us. So "whom" is in the nominative case. It is also said that his saying, "except for whom He has mercy," is an exception that is disconnected, as if he said: there is no protector today that exists, but the one whom Allah has mercy on exists. And this is good from the perspective of meaning, that the negation of the protector entails the negation of the protected. So it is established in meaning. As for the perspective of wording, "whom" is in the accusative case according to the saying of the Nabighah:

"Except for the awari..."

And it is not permissible for it to be in the nominative case according to the saying of the poet:

"And a town in which there is no companion... except for the wild animals and except for the camels."

For these two are companions of that desolate place, and the protected here is not a protector in any way. And it is said: "protector" means: one who holds fast. So "protector" - on this - is in the meaning of protected, and the exception comes correctly, and "whom" is in the nominative case, and "today" is an adverb, and it is related to his saying: "from the command of Allah," or to the good that is decreed: it exists today. And it is not correct for it to be related to "protector" because it would come in the indefinite form: "no protector today," returning to the original of the accusative so that three things do not return to one. Rather, the rule is that the two things should be one: "no" and what it has acted upon. And the example of the grammarians in this matter is: "no matter on Friday for you," for if you act on a day for you, you say: "no matter."

And "between them" means: between Noah and his son, so the son was among those who drowned.

And His saying, the Exalted, "And it was said, 'O earth, swallow your water,'" the construction of the verb for the object is more eloquent in magnificence and might. And likewise, the construction of the verbs - after that - in the rest of the verse. It has been narrated that an Arab heard this verse and said: "This is the speech of the capable." And "swallowing" is the act of drinking and swallowing something. So he likened the earth's grasp of the water and its absorption into it to that. And it was commanded to be likened, and the water was added to it as it is upon it and is present in it. And "the sky" in this verse, is either the covering sky or the clouds. And "ceasing" from something means leaving it, and the meaning is: cease from the rains. And "subside" means: it decreased. And it often comes in what is in the meaning of drying up, as in His saying: "And the water subsided," and as in His saying: "And what the wombs decrease and what they increase" [Ar-Ra'd: 8]. And most of the interpreters are of the opinion that this is in reference to menstruation, and likewise the saying of Al-Aswad ibn Ya'fur:

"...what has decreased from my sight and from my skins."

And that is because the elderly human is diminished by dryness and lack of nourishment.

And His saying: "And the matter was decreed" is a reference to the entire story: the sending of the water, the destruction of the nations, and the saving of the people of the ship. It has been narrated that Noah, peace be upon him, boarded the ship from the spring of Warda in the Levant on the first day of Rajab, and it was said: on the tenth of it, and it was said: on the fifteenth, and it was said: on the seventeenth. The ship settled in Dhul-Hijjah, and it remained on Mount Judi for a month. It was said to him: descend on the day of Ashura, so he fasted it, and those with him from people and beasts fasted it. Al-Tabari narrated from Ibn Ishaq what indicates that he remained on the water for about a year. He also mentioned a hadith from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "Noah boarded the ship on the first day of Rajab, and he fasted the entire month, and the ship sailed with them until the day of Ashura, and on it it settled on Judi, so Noah and those with him fasted it."

It has been narrated that when Noah's stay on the water was prolonged, he sent out the raven to bring him news of the completion of the drowning. It found a carcass floating and remained on it, so it did not return with news. Noah then cursed it, and its color turned black, and it was feared by the people, so it is for this reason that it is solitary. Then Noah sent out the dove, and it came to him with an olive leaf in its mouth and did not find any soil to place its feet on. It remained for forty days, then he sent it out again, and it found that the water had receded from the site of the Kaaba, which was the first place from which the water receded. It touched the mud with its feet and came back to him, so he knew that the water had begun to diminish. He prayed for it, and it was encircled and became accustomed to people. Then Allah revealed to the mountains that the ship would settle on one of them, so all of them rose, and only Judi - which is a mountain in Mosul in the region of the island - did not rise out of humility before Allah. The ship settled by the command of Allah upon it, and its beams remained on it. In the hadith, "The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: 'Indeed, something remained from it that was reached by the early ones of this nation.'" Al-Zajjaj said: Judi is in the region of Amida.

And some said: it is near Baqirda. It has been narrated that when the ship departed from the spring of Warda, it sailed until it reached the Kaaba, and you found it had risen from the ground, so it was not affected by drowning. It circled around it for a week, then it went to Yemen and returned to Judi.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The stories in these meanings are many and difficult to be fully covered, so I have pointed to some of them, and there is disagreement in them as you see regarding the matter of the Kaaba, and Allah knows how it was. And "it settled" means it became established and stable. The majority of the people read: "upon Judi" with a kasra on the 'ya' and a shaddah, while Al-Amash and Ibn Abi Abla read: "upon Judi" with a sukoon on the 'ya', and both are two dialects. And His saying: "And it was said, 'Distance'" may be from the saying of Allah, the Exalted, as a conjunction to the first "and it was said," and it may be from the saying of Noah and the believers. The first is clearer and more eloquent.