﴿ قَالَ وَمَا عِلْمِى بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ ﴾

“Said he: “And what knowledge could I have as to what they were doing [before they came to me]?”

Noah’s community rejected him, though his call was fully borne out by the strength of arguments. Besides, his character bore testimony to his truthfulness. The people of his community knew that Noah was a righteous and honest man. They knew that there was no vested self-interest attached to his call for the Truth. Indeed, his personal qualities were enough to prove his seriousness. And a person who is serious about God’s creatures cannot be other than serious about their Creator. Noah’s community rejected his call for the Truth, though they could offer nothing but irrelevant matters to justify this rejection. To say that the companions of a preacher are ordinary people in order to justify rejection of his call, is not a contradiction of the call but amounts rather to self-contradiction. It means that nothing can be found by way of arguments to warrant saying anything against the call of Truth. Such a stance did no credit to Noah’s community.