And We Made His Offspring The Sole Survivors

According to biblical story, Prophet Adam AS lived for 930 before he died.  After Adam, the next prophet the we know by name is Idris.  He is called Enoch in the Bible.  It was said that Prophet Idris AS was born when Adam was 622 years old.  This means that when Idris was born, Adam was still alive.  

In Arabic, Idris means “the instructor, the teacher.”  In Hebrew, he is called Enoch, meaning, “initiated, dedicated, disciplined.”  He was the first one who taught writing and reading, and also the first one who tamed horses for riding.  He was also the first to teach people mathematics and astronomy. 

According to both biblical and Islamic legends, Prophet Idris did not die but he was raised to the lofty place.  The legend said that he asked the Angel of Death to take his life so that he can taste death.  So the Angel of Death took his life and his soul went to the Paradise.  This took place when he was 365 years old, or after Prophet Adam had died for 57 years.

But when the Angel of Death came to him to make him alive again, he asked the Angel how many time people die.  The Angel said only once.  Then the Prophet Idris said that since he had already died once, he should not live and die again.  So the Angel did not revive him.

Since Prophet Idris was the great teacher and highly revered, his disappearance had caused great distress to his people and they had made a statue in his remembrance, that is, some kind of memorial.  From time to time, they bowed to the statue to show respect.

The later generations who did not live with him and did not know why the statue was made in the first place had turned to worship the statue instead of remembering Idris.  This is said to be the first instance of idol worshiping.

The third prophet is Noah (Nabi Nuh).  According to the Biblical account, Prophet Noah AS was born in the year 1,056 of the Jewish Calendar, or about 126 after the death of Adam.  This is equivalent to 69 years after the disappearance of Prophet Idris. 

By the time the third prophet appeared, people had forgotten the tawhid or the oneness of God.  All of them worshiped idols instead.

Quran said Prophet Noah lived for 950 years.  In spite of the length of his prophethood, however, he managed to convince only a few.  According to Islamic tradition, his followers, including the members of his family, numbered only 83 or so.  Even one of his sons did not believe in his message.

According to Bible, it was only his family who believed in him.  They were his wife, his three children, Ham, Shem and Japhet, along with Prophet’s Noah daughter in laws as well as his grandchildren.  Islamic tradition, meanwhile, said that even his wife did not believe in him.   In addition, one of his sons named Kanaan (also called Yam) also did not believe in him and was drown later on during the great flood.  This son who disbelieved in him was not mentioned in the Bible.

After long preaching without much success, in his doa (supplication) to God, Prophet Noah said that there was nothing more he can do. The people were beyond repair.  Allah then commanded Prophet Noah to build an ark (a ship).   It was very huge and was built on the land, far from the sea.  His people were laughing at him saying that he was mad to make a ship when there was no sea nearby.  They did not know that afterward, Allah had sent the great flood and destroyed all of them except Noah and his followers or families in the ship. 

According to the Bible and some Islamic scholars, he was the father of all nations through his three sons who had survived, namely, Ham, Japhet and Shem.  Japhet is said to be the father of white colored people such as the Europeans, the Turkish people and the Iranians; Shem is said to be the father of the Jews and the Arabs; and Ham to be the father of the rest of the people. 

Many Islamic scholars also believe that he was the Father of all nations.  This is based on their interpretation of the Quran chapter 37 verse 77: “And we made his offspring the sole survivors.”  This verse refers to the great flood that drown everyone except those in the ship.  Thus, people nowadays are all descended from him.

The evolution scientists treat the story of great flood as mere legend.  They do not consider Noah to be the Father of all nations.  They do not even consider Prophet Adam to be the Father of mankind.  They say human being evolved from monkey.  

The evolution scientists imagine that some monkeys must have gotten tired of swinging from one tree to another.  So some of them try to walk on the ground.  At first they walked on all four feet.  Then some of them got tired of walking on four feet and tried walking on two.  The other two feet became their hands.  At long last they did not know how to walk on four feet anymore.  So they became human beings. 

This version of the story is known as the Evolution Theory.  The theory says that in the beginning, there was only tiny bit of living matter like bacteria or amoeba.  After long time, these tiny creatures got bigger and evolved into fish.  Then some fish tried to crawl on lands.  After they got used to it, some of them became reptiles.  Some of these reptiles tried flying and evolved into birds, while others turned into mammals.  Some mammals became monkeys and later on some monkeys became humans.

We did not know exactly how Allah created all the creations, including humans.  As Muslims, we believe Allah made us special, to be khalifah on earth.  When we were created, Allah “breath” His soul into Adam.  He made us to be aware of Him, and we are held accountable to our belief/faith and actions.  Animals including monkey are not held accountable for their actions.

As Muslims, we believe there was great flood that drowned everyone on the face of the earth during Prophet Noah time because that is what Quran tells us.  The Christians and the Jews also believe the same, because similar story is written in the Bible.

If we read a bit more, actually it is not only the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims who believe in the great flood.  In fact, all cultures in the world have their legends about the Great Flood. 

The Malays who are Muslims would go with the story in the Quran, but our aborigines such as the Jakun also have their legend as well.

Their story goes something like this.  The ground that we stand on is merely a skin.  Underneath is all water. Long ago, the god Pirman broke up this skin.  As a result, the whole world was flooded.  But Pirman had created a man and woman and placed them in a completely closed ship. All mankind are descended from that first pair.

The Mandayas, a tribe in the Philippines, also have their stories.  A great flood once drowned all the world's inhabitants except one pregnant woman. She prayed that her child would be a boy, and it was. When he grew up, he wed his mother, and all Mandayas are descended from them.

Even the people in Tibet also have their story. Long time ago, Tibet was almost totally inundated, that is, covered with water, until the god Gya took compassion on the survivors, drew off the waters through Bengal, and sent teachers to civilize the people, who until then had been little better than monkeys. Those people repopulated the land. 

There are hundreds of other similar stories but we need not waste space here.   Over times, of course, the stories had changed considerably, but the memory of the great flood remained, even to people in Tibet, the highest place on earth.

One common theme about all these stories is that those who were saved from this great flood had repopulated the earth.  We the Muslims believe the great flood was during Prophet Noah.  And through his offspring developed many nations that repopulated the earth.