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Bismillahi ar-rahmani ar-rahim

Hud (11) 40

احْمِلْ فِيهَا مِن كُلٍّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا مَن سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ وَمَنْ آمَنَ وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ

“Load it up with a pair of every kind of animal, your family except the one previously mentioned, and those who believed.” Only a few believed.

Who was on the ark with Nuh (aws)?

This ayah gives us a list of the survivors of the flood. Apart from people, Allah also saved every kind of animal. This, together with creating enough space for anyone, who would believe, is the main reason why the boat needed to be so big. As usual, the Tawrat gives us more details than the Qur’an does. That is why the message given to Muhammad (saws) in the Honorable Qur’an is often called ذِكْرٌ – dhik’run, the Reminder. It is to remind us of the revelations Allah gave before it. If the Qur’an is to fulfil its intended role as a Reminder, obviously, we need to read all of Allah’s revelations. Otherwise, the Qur’an will have nothing to remind us of.

Tawrat, Genesis 7:2.3

Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

This is the first time in all the Holy Books recognized in Islam (Tawrat, Zabur, Injil and Qur’an) that the concept of halal (permitted) and haram (forbidden) is directly introduced. These categories are translated here as clean and unclean. What rule regarding food did Allah give people before that.

Tawrat, Genesis 1:29

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

What did Allah give people for food, when he created them?

1. plants (vegetables, fruits, seeds, grains, nuts etc.)
2. plants and halal meat
3. plants, halal and haram meat

Remember from what we studied before, that death is called the wages of sin. Since there was no disobedience in Jannah, there was not and could not have been death there either. Death only came after Hawa and Adam disobeyed Allah. It makes sense then, that Allah did not originally give people meat for eating. Nuh (aws), who lived many hundreds of years after Adam, is the first human to whom Al Muqit (the Nourisher) gave instruction about clean and unclean animals. With the Earth destroyed by the flood and its climate changed, Allah permitted people to eat meat of the animals which He himself selected to be halal for men. It is not wrong to eat halal meat, but it is good to be aware that this is not Allah’s ideal plan. It is only a provision for life in a world with deserts and harsh climates. Death is not Allah’s plan, it is a result of disobedience of Him.