The Appearance of Daabba
Chapter 27 of the Quran describes a sign of God which will appear before Doomsday: “When God’s word is justly carried out against them, We will produce a daabba from the earth which will tell them that mankind had no real faith in Our signs.” (The Quran, 27:82)
This verse of the Quran had remained unclear for the last fourteen hundred years. But in the light of the information we have gathered in recent years regarding Noah’s Ark, we can safely infer that daabba refers to Noah’s Ark, that is, daabba which creeps over water. The Quran calls Noah’s Ark a sign. This similarity between Noah’s Ark and daabba is extremely meaningful. From the very beginning of human history, God planned to send His prophets in every age to inform man of the creation plan of God. But man, owing to his haughtiness, ignored the prophets to the extent that the prophets could not even find a place in recorded human history. The prophets became a matter of belief rather than a matter of established history. Consequently, man apparently knew about creation but he remained totally ignorant of the purpose of creation.
We are told this in the above-mentioned verse of the Quran. This verse explains that before Doomsday this myth would be destroyed. The means of destroying this myth will be the appearance of a historical sign of a prophet who is mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran. In this way a religious belief will become scientific evidence (established truth). As mentioned above, daabba literally means a creeper. Noah’s Ark was a vehicle, which crept over water. Creeping over the floodwaters it reached the Mount Ararat situated on the border of Turkey.
Now in the twenty-first century this matter (Noah’s Ark) has become a reality. The time is going to come very soon when its existence will make it as clear as daylight to those who had been refuting God’s signs how mistaken they were in doing so, for it will communicate to them, albeit in silent language, what the actual truth of the matter is. It will be there right before their eyes.
Prophet Noah told his people directly and to all humanity indirectly about God’s creation plan: that man’s abode on the planet earth is for a limited period of time (The Quran, 71:4). That is, they have to remain in this world of trial for an appointed time and subsequently they are to appear before God in the life Hereafter. This is the reality of life which Noah and other prophets communicated to man, but this warning of the prophets was eliminated by man from recorded history.
The appearance of daabba is mentioned in both the Quran and the Hadith. But at both the places, it is mentioned as a prediction of the future. That is why there are different opinions of the commentators regarding daabba. After a detailed study, I have reached the above conclusion. According to the information available so far, I think this is the right viewpoint. However, God knows better.
According to God’s law, it has happened many times that a community which was addressed by a prophet, rejected his message, and consequently incurred divine punishment. But the form of punishment chosen in the case of the unbelieving communities of other prophets was different from that of Noah’s people.
When those who denied their prophets, in spite of their having conveyed the message for a long period with all sincerity and well-wishing, God decreed their punishment. In such cases God asked the prophets and his believing companions to leave that settlement. When they had left the place, that settlement was destroyed (at the local level) either by earthquakes or strong tempests. But in the case of Noah’s people, a totally different method was adopted.
Prophet Noah communicated the message of God to his people over a long period of time. Some believed in him but the majority of them denied his message. Then God commanded Noah to build a large Ark and take aboard on it the believers as well as pairs of animals. When all this work was complete and people had boarded the Ark, then water gushed forth in torrents. Water came from the earth as well as from the skies. The level of water was so high that it reached the top of the mountains. It was because of this different style adopted that Noah’s Ark remained preserved for the coming generations.
What has been said about Noah’s Ark in the Quran, is given in detail in the verse mentioning daabba: ‘When God’s word is justly carried out against them, We will produce a daabba from the earth which will tell them that mankind had no real faith in Our signs’ (The Quran, 27:82). ‘Signs’ here refers to the coming of the prophets in the past. The coming of God’s prophet is a sign of God. But in ancient times the contemporaries of the prophets denied them. This fact has been mentioned thus in the Quran: ‘Alas for human beings! They ridicule every messenger that comes to them.’ (The Quran, 36:30)
The prophets being God’s signs were judged to be only theoretical evidences, that is why they were denied by their people. Therefore, God wanted to establish material evidence in favour of prophets and prophethood. Noah’s Ark, in the sense of daabba, is probably material evidence of this kind.
The appearance of the Ark, daabba, in present times
serves as a great historical argument for the divine
religion.
The appearance of the Ark in present times seems to say in a silent language, ‘O man, you have denied Prophet Noah and his divine mission. You have eliminated him from your history as if he did not exist. Now it has become quite clear to you that such a denial is just not possible.’ Theoretical evidence calls for voluntary acknowledgement, but material evidence entails compulsory acknowledgement. Now man has no logical justification for adopting an attitude of denial with regard to the prophet and his mission.
The appearance of the Ark in present times serves as a great historical argument for the divine religion. But it is very strange that Muslims have had no part to play in bringing this matter to light. All the research on the subject was done by Christian and Jewish scholars. This has come about because, other than the Quran, Noah’s Ark is mentioned in the Old Testament as well. That is why the Jews and the Christians were interested in investigating it. Using modern resources, they investigated this matter and then published their conclusion. It, thus, became a matter of common knowledge.
