His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿Noah said, 'My Lord, indeed they have disobeyed me and followed one whose wealth and children only increase him in loss.'﴾ ﴿And they conspired a great conspiracy.﴾ ﴿And they said, 'Do not leave your gods and do not leave Wadd or Suwa' or Ya'uth and Ya'uq and Nasr.'﴾ ﴿And they have misled many. And do not increase the wrongdoers except in error.'﴾ ﴿From their sins they were drowned, and they were admitted into a Fire, and they did not find for themselves any defenders besides Allah.'

The meaning: So when they did not obey and Noah, peace be upon him, despaired of their faith, he said, 'My Lord, indeed they have disobeyed me and followed their nobles and their leaders.' He expressed this by saying that their wealth and children increased them in loss, meaning loss.

Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, Hamzah, Al-Kisai, and Nafi' - in a narration outside of him - read: 'and his children' with a dammah on the waw and a sukoon on the lam. This is the reading of Ibn Al-Zubair, Al-Hasan, Al-A'raj, Al-Nakha'i, and Mujahid. Nafi' and Asim and Ibn Amir read: 'and his children' with a fathah on the waw and lam, and they have the same meaning as kabkhlin and bakhalin. This is the reading of Abu Abd Al-Rahman, Al-Hasan, Abu Rija', Ibn Wathab, Abu Ja'far, and Shaiba. And they read: 'and his children' with a kasrah on the waw, and Al-Jahdari, and Zirr, and Al-Hasan, and Ibn Abu Ishaq, and Talhah. Abu Amr said: 'children' with a dammah on the waw and a sukoon on the lam means the clan and the people. Abu Hatim said: It could be that 'the children' with a dammah on the waw is the plural of 'the child,' and that is like khashabin and khushubin. And Al-Hassan ibn Thabit said:

O the son of the blessed Amna, her mention is from the child of the chaste one by Sa'd Al-As'ad.

And the majority of the people read: 'greatly' with a shaddah on the ba, and it is a form of exaggeration similar to Hassan. Isa said: It is a Yemeni language, and on it is the saying of the poet:

And a man follows him with the young men of generosity, not of the radiant.

With a dammah on the waw. And Ibn Muhaisin and Isa ibn Umar read: 'greatly' with a takhfif of the ba, and it is a form of exaggeration, but it is less than the first. And Ibn Muhaisin, in what was narrated from him by Abu Al-Akhrit Wahb ibn Wadhih, read: 'great' with a kasrah on the kaf. Ibn Al-Anbari said: It is a great plural, as if he made 'conspiracy' in place of sins and deeds and the like.

And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿And they said, 'Do not leave your gods'﴾ is news about their advising one another regarding their idols in general, and what was of them was of notable status, and what was of them was specific to one of the people. Then they began to specify the notable idols, and these idols were reported to be names of righteous men who were in the early days of the world. When they died, the people of that era carved them from stone and said: 'We will look at them to remember their deeds.' So that generation perished, and the glorification of the others for those stones increased until they were worshipped. Then those idols, in their forms - and it was said: rather the names only - were transferred to tribes of the Arabs. So 'Wudd' was in Kalb in Dumat Al-Jandal, and 'Suwa' was in Hudhail, and 'Ya'uth' was in Murad, and 'Ya'uq' was in Hamadhan, and 'Nasr' was in Dhul-Kula'a from Hamir.

Nafi' read alone - and it was narrated from Asim -: "Wad" with the 'waw' pronounced with a dammah, while the others, Al-A'mash, Al-Hasan, Talhah, Shaibah, and Abu Ja'far - with a difference from the three - read: "Wadd" with the 'waw' pronounced with a fatha. The poet said:

"May Wadd greet you, for it is not lawful for us ** the amusement of women, and indeed the religion has determined."

It is said that he meant by that the idol, and it is narrated with both the 'waw' pronounced with a dammah and with a fatha.

Al-A'mash read: "And do not invoke Yaghuth and Ya'uq" in the accusative, and that is an error because the definite article is necessary and the weight of the verb. His saying: ﴿And they have led astray many﴾ is the news of Noah, peace be upon him, about them. It is disconnected from what he narrated about them, and the meaning is: These speakers have led many people, followers, and common folk astray. Then he called upon Allah, the Exalted, that He does not increase them except in misguidance, and he mentioned the wrongdoers so that the supplication encompasses all who follow their path. Al-Hasan said - in the book of Al-Naqqash -: He meant by his saying: "And they have led astray" the mentioned idols, and he expressed it with the pronoun of those who have intellect because the majority of their people treat them as those who have intellect and attribute the actions of intellect to them.

And His saying, the Exalted: "From their sins" is the beginning of news from Allah, the Exalted, to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, meaning that the call of Noah, peace be upon him, was answered, and their affair ended up like this. The "ma" in His saying, the Exalted: "From what" is extra, so it is as if He, the Exalted, said: They were drowned from their sins, and it is for the beginning of the end. Al-Jahdari and Al-Hasan read: "From their sin" in the singular. Abu Amr alone, Al-Hasan, 'Isa, Al-A'raj, and Qatadah read - with a difference among them -: "From their sins" in the plural form. And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿So enter the Fire﴾ means Hell, and He expressed that with the past tense because the matter is certain. It is said that He meant their presentation to the Fire morning and evening, and He expressed it with the entering. And His saying, the Exalted: "So they did not find" means: The drowning ones did not find anyone besides Allah, the Exalted, to support them and turn away from them the punishment of Allah.