Al-Safinah
Definition
Al-safinah — the ark or ship — was the vessel Allah commanded Nuh to build under divine instruction, far from any body of water, in full view of people who mocked him as a madman. Ibn Kathir reviews scholarly opinions about its dimensions, its materials, and how it accommodated pairs of every living species. What all narrations agree on is that the ark was both a physical miracle of construction and a spiritual symbol of what obedience to divine command produces: a means of salvation that seems absurd to the heedless world but proves to be the only thing standing between life and annihilation when the divine judgment arrives.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
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