We carried you as We carried your forefathers in the vessel, because if they were from the descendants of those who were carried and saved, then the carrying of their forefathers is a favor upon them, as if they themselves were the ones carried, because their salvation is the reason for their birth, so that We may make it.

The pronoun refers to the action: which is the salvation of the believers and the drowning of the disbelievers, as a reminder.

A lesson and an admonition for an attentive ear.

It is of its nature to comprehend and retain what it hears and not to lose it by neglecting to act. Everything that you have retained in yourself, you have comprehended it. [Mahamud said: "It is said that you comprehended it, meaning you retained it in yourself... etc." Ahmad said: It is like His saying: 'Let every soul look to what it has brought forth for tomorrow.' It has been mentioned that the benefit of the indefinite article and the singular form in it indicates the scarcity of those who observe.] And whatever you have retained outside of yourself, you have comprehended it, as in your saying: 'I comprehended the thing in the container.' And it is reported from the Prophet ﷺ that he said to Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, when this verse was revealed: 'I asked Allah to make it your ear, O Ali.' Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said: 'I have not forgotten anything after that, and it was not for me to forget.' [Reported by Sa'id ibn Mansur and al-Tabari from the narration of Makhluf, with a complete chain similar to it. Al-Thalabi reported it through Abu Hamza al-Thumali, who narrated to me from Abdullah ibn Hasan, saying: When it was revealed, and he mentioned it in the wording of the author.]

If you say: Why was it said: 'an attentive ear,' in the singular and indefinite form? I say: To indicate that the listeners among them are few, and to reproach the people for the scarcity of those who comprehend from them, and to show that a single ear that comprehends and understands from Allah is the majority in the sight of Allah, and that what is besides it is of no concern, even if they fill what is between the horizons. And it is recited: 'And it comprehends it' with the 'ayn' being silent for ease: similar to 'it comprehends with the liver.'