Reasons for the severe description
- They committed crimes against a Prophet and rejected and opposed his message for the longest span of time.
- Nuh (as) passed through at least twenty generations (more likely 30+).
Context — “مِّن قَبْلُ” (Min Qablu)
Placement in history
The expression مِّن قَبْلُ implies that it was a long time before — indicating that Nuh was well before ‘Aad and Thamud.
Why “worse wrongdoers” and “more rebellious”?
A generational stance of disbelief
A pattern was passed down parent-to-child, perpetuating rejection.
“O my son, my father took me to this one (i.e., Nuh) and I was like you on that day. So, beware to believe in him (i.e., make sure that you don’t)”
- They were not impacted by his call whilst he invited them for one thousand years minus fifty.
- Each father would instruct his son to disbelieve in Nuh (as); generation after generation followed in disbelief.
Transgression meets its like
Lexical link: act and punishment
أَطْغَىٰ
“more rebellious”
طُغْيَان
“a catastrophic flood” — named with the same root
Those who perpetrated طُغْيَان suffered the punishment of طُغْيَان.
Moral principle of correspondence
الَجَزاءُ مِن جِنْسُ العَمَل
“The recompense is of the same kind as the act or deed” — the principle that one’s reward or punishment corresponds in nature to one's actions.
Outcome highlighted
They suffered a catastrophic flood.