Page 50 - The Evil Called Mockery

48 THE EVIL CALLED MOCKERY

doing whatever we want to with our wealth? You are
clearly the forbearing, the rightly-guided!" (Surah Hud, 87)
Another example is the experience of the Prophet Noah (as),
whom Allah told to build an ark in order to save his people from de-
struction. When he started to do so, the unbelievers among his tribe
began to mock him:
It was revealed to Noah: "None of your people are going to

believe, except for those who already believe, so do not be
distressed at what they do. Build the ark under Our super-
vision and as We reveal, and do not address Me concerning
the wrongdoers. They shall be drowned." He began to
build the ark, and every time some nobles of his people
passed him by, they ridiculed him. He said: "Though you
ridicule us now, we will certainly ridicule you as you do us.
You will soon know who will receive a punishment that
disgraces him and find unleashed against himself an ever-
lasting punishment." (Surah Hud, 36-39)
In the end, what Allah promised to the Prophet Noah (as) came

true, and his people were destroyed. In this world, his people failed
to understand Allah's power. Their own lack of intelligence caused
them to regard Allah's threat of their destruction as a distant possi-
bility from which their properties and power would protect them.
But their mockery turned back on themselves and they were pun-
ished for their violent deeds in this life. And, they would find more
punishment awaiting them in the hereafter. Allah warns us that the
unbelievers' fate in the hereafter will be so severe that it cannot be
compared with anything experienced in this world.