Most of my readers will not be surprised to hear that Noah (or Nuh) is regarded as a prophet of Islam and there is a whole chapter in the qu'ran about him.
Naturally the qu'ran disagrees with the bible on many important details. For one thing the flood didn't inundate the whole world at all in the muslim version of the story, but only the region where Noah and his people lived. Secondly, because there were no trees in the area Noah had to plant them and wait for them to grow, then using the timber to build the ark.
The local nature of the flood relieved Noah of a lot of responsibility so he only had to rescue the animals that were already in his care. That also solves the problems of the spread of animals around the world after the flood, and indeed the difficulty of housing all the animals in the world for a year. He was also permitted to save 76 other people who had submitted to god, but one of his sons perished.
It is not often that you will hear me supporting islam, but on this occasion, (choosing between two impossible stories about the same bronze age myth) it appears to me that the qu'ranic version is the less ridiculous in most ways!
2 comments:
Fast-growing timber in those parts though? Hope they dried and seasoned it properly.
Oh no - I think god just gave him plenty of warning. He was good at keeping a secret wasn't he!
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