His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And certainly, most of the earlier ones had gone astray before them﴾ ﴿And certainly, We sent among them warners﴾ ﴿So look how was the end of the warners﴾ ﴿Except for the servants of Allah, the chosen﴾ ﴿And certainly, Noah called us, and excellent are the responders﴾ ﴿And We saved him and his family from the great distress﴾ ﴿And We made his descendants the remaining﴾ ﴿And We left upon him in the later ones﴾ ﴿Peace be upon Noah among the worlds﴾

The Most High has likened Quraysh in this verse to the nations that went astray long ago. They were warned, and Allah destroyed them with His justice. His saying: ﴿So look how was the end of the warners﴾ implies the news that He punished them. Therefore, the exception in His saying: ﴿Except for the servants of Allah﴾ is appropriate.

And the call of Noah, peace be upon him, included several things: among them is the supplication against his people, and among them is the request for salvation, and among them is the plea for assistance. In all of that, the response occurred. And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿And excellent are the responders﴾ indicates that the response was in the most complete form that Noah, peace be upon him, desired. And ﴿the great distress﴾, Al-Suddi said: it is the drowning. And among the distress is the denial of the disbelievers, and the immersion in the water and its terror. Al-Rummani said: distress is the heavy news upon the heart.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿And We made his descendants the remaining﴾, Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, and Qatadah said: all the people of the earth are from the descendants of Noah. Al-Tabari said: and the Arabs are from the children of Sam, and the Sudan are from the children of Ham, and the Turks and Slavs and others are from the children of Yafith. It has been narrated from Samurah ibn Jundub that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, recited this verse and said: "Sam, Ham, and Yafith." And a group said: Allah, exalted and majestic is He, preserved the descendants of Noah, and extended his lineage, and blessed his offspring. The matter is not that the people of the earth are limited to his descendants, but there are nations that do not trace back to him. The first opinion is more famous among the scholars of the Ummah, and they said: Noah is the smaller Adam.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿And We left upon him in the later ones﴾ means: a beautiful and good praise that remains until the end of time, as said by Ibn Abbas, Qatadah, Mujahid, and Al-Suddi. And His saying: ﴿Peace﴾ - according to this interpretation - is a raising by beginning anew. Allah has sent peace upon him so that mankind may follow that. Al-Tabari said: this is a protection from Him for Noah among the worlds that no one should mention him with evil.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: this is the reward for what he patiently endured for a long time against the words of the disbelieving sinners.

And Al-Farra and others from the Kufans said: His saying: ﴿Peace﴾ is a phrase in the position of being raised by "We left upon him," and this is what is left upon him. It is as if He said: and We left upon Noah a greeting, which will be sent upon him until the Day of Resurrection. And in the reading of Abdullah: [Peace] is in the accusative case with "We left." May Allah send blessings upon Noah and his family and grant them peace, and honor and elevate them, and upon all His prophets.

And ﴿in the later ones﴾ means: among the remaining throughout time, and the reading with a kasra on the khā is: and whatever was of destruction is with a fathah.