بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Al-Kitab states in ayat 29:14 that prophet Nooh (a.s) remained with his people for 1000 years except 50. Human beings normally don’t live that long. Let’s review further to understand implications of the statement.
In ayat 16:120 prophet Ibraheem (a.s) is mentioned as an أُمَّةً/’Ummat’. In ayat 37:83, Ibraheem (a.s) is said to be of the same group as of prophet Nooh (a.s). If the group is implied for an ‘Ummat’, then this would mean that prophet Nooh (a.s) also signifies an Ummat in addition to be an individual person. In ayat 11:8 the word “Ummat” is used to mean time period/era. This could imply that Ibraheem (a.s) and Nooh (a.s), apart from being individual human beings, also represent eras of time in which their influence and teachings prevailed in their communities. Ayat 25:37 informs about messengers in plural, sent to the people of Nooh. So there were messengers sent to the people of Nooh in an era which is termed as Nooh’s Era.
29:14 وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِ فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ وَهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ
“We sent Nooh to his people, and he remained among them a thousand years except fifty, thus the Deluge overtook them while they were unjust.”
Al-Kitab uses different words for 1000 Years (Sana) and 50 years (Aam) in this ayat. While normally people use both these words to mean “years,” there is definitely some technical difference in these two words, not very clearly understood at this time.
16:120 إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ كَانَ أُمَّةً قَانِتًا لِّلَّهِ حَنِيفًا وَلَمْ يَكُ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ
“Ibraheem was indeed an ‘Ummat’, devoutly obedient to Allah, (and) true in Faith, and he was not of the mushrikeen/associaters.”
Prophet Ibraheem (a.s) is declared an ‘Ummat’.
Prophet Ibraheem (a.s) and prophet Nooh (a.s) are in the same group.
37:79-83 سَلَامٌ عَلَىٰ نُوحٍ فِي الْعَالَمِينَ إِنَّا كَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُحْسِنِينَ إِنَّهُ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ثُمَّ أَغْرَقْنَا الْآخَرِينَ وَإِنَّ مِن شِيعَتِهِ لَإِبْرَاهِيمَ
“Peace and salutation to Nooh in all Worlds! Thus indeed do we reward those who do right. For he is one of our believing servants. After that we drowned the others. Verily in his (Nooh’s) group is Ibraheem.”
Ummat in below ayat means time period/term.
11:8 وَلَئِنْ أَخَّرْنَا عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابَ إِلَىٰ أُمَّةٍ مَّعْدُودَةٍ لَّيَقُولُنَّ مَا يَحْبِسُهُ ۗ أَلَا يَوْمَ يَأْتِيهِمْ لَيْسَ مَصْرُوفًا عَنْهُمْ وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ
“If We delay the penalty for them for a definite time period (term), they are sure to say, ‘What keeps it back?’ Ah! On the day it (actually) reaches them, nothing will turn it away from them, and they will be completely encircled by that which they used to mock at!”
Many messengers came to nation of Nooh.
25:37 وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍ لَّمَّا كَذَّبُوا الرُّسُلَ أَغْرَقْنَاهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ آيَةً ۖ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا
“And the people of Nooh, when they rejected the messengers, We drowned them, and We made them as a Sign for mankind; and We have prepared for (all) wrong-doers a grievous Penalty.”
As we know, the life span of a human is not a thousand years. It is not Allah’s practice to grant such long life spans to human beings and Allah does not change his Sunnat/practice (17:77). So a possible explanation could be that Nooh (a.s), in addition to being an individual person, also represents an era of time approximately equal to a millennium. To support this idea we see mention of nations associated with prophet Nooh (a.s) in below ayat, although actually only a few people were with him as stated in ayat 11:40.
11:48 قِيلَ يَا نُوحُ اهْبِطْ بِسَلَامٍ مِّنَّا وَبَرَكَاتٍ عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰ أُمَمٍ مِّمَّن مَّعَكَ ۚ وَأُمَمٌ سَنُمَتِّعُهُمْ ثُمَّ يَمَسُّهُم مِّنَّا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
“It was said ‘O Nooh! Come down (from the Ark) with peace from Us, and blessing on you and on some of the nations from those with you and (other) nations to whom We shall grant blessings, then a grievous penalty shall reach them from Us.’”
The above ayat mentions nations with prophet Nooh’s which should be indicating the nations in his era, while the actual believing people with him were very few as per below ayat.
11:40 حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ قُلْنَا احْمِلْ فِيهَا مِن كُلٍّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا مَن سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ وَمَنْ آمَنَ ۚ وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ
Until when arrived Our command, and the fountains of the earth gushed forth! We said. “Embark therein, of all two pairs, and your people/family – except those against whom the word has already gone forth,- and the believers.” but only a few believed with him.
Notes:
The presence of an individual living for a millennium within a community with a normal human lifespan would undoubtedly create significant social disruption and fear. Such a scenario would only be sustainable if the entire community at that time possessed a similarly extended lifespan. If longer longevity in earlier human history was the case, we would expect to find genetic remnants of such longevity in modern human populations as well, which is not the case. The fossils and DNA of early humans understandably point towards shorter life spans than humans today.
Consider, for instance, the implications for Prophet Nooh, purported to have lived for 1,000 years. Approximately 40 generations would pass within this period. Even with a modest birth rate of 1.5, his direct descendants—children and grandchildren—would number in the hundreds of thousands. Which was not the case described by Quran. Only a few people were in his Ark from the community.
Furthermore, if the wider community did not share Prophet Noah’s extended life cycle, his wife, children, grandchildren, and friends would all have perished long before him. This would leave him as a solitary figure, potentially viewed with extreme apprehension by a community witnessing a supernatural individual live for centuries among them.
These profound social and demographic challenges, arising from such a disparity in lifespans, are notably absent from the Quranic narrative.
Topics from The Book (Al-Kitab) 
Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarokaatuh,
Dear Brother Aijaz, I’m thanking brother Ajzhyder for posting this link (your explanation) to islamiCity discussion on the topic of Age of Nooh responding to my statement & request for help/explanation from the expert [after agreeing to JonP statement (2014) in IslamiCity of his believe that the period of ‘1000 years except 50 years’ is the period that prophet Nuh’s teachings stay with his people].
Just other things I found from the Aya that your explanation makes more sense to me :
Interesting to note that it is the only time where a period related to a Prophet life/teachings is stated in the Qur’an. Why there is no mention of other prophets (Adam, Ibraheem, Musa etc) age?. This is despite the (later) existence of writings/hadiths mentioning the age of prophets that resemble Old Testament’s/Taurat ages (are these hadiths that are categorized as Israiliyyat?). Also the fact that in the period the Aya was revealed in Madina (and in Arabia) there were already Jewish communities and Christians who believed on these prophets age including the age of prophet Noah of 950 years. Could it be that the mention of 1000 years except 50 years in the Quran is to somewhat appreciate the Jewish/Christian believe in their scriptures (the same prophet that Islam believe) but saying it in a wording that at the time can be interpreted/understood as agreeing to their believe but it is not actually saying the same thing (period of his teachings staying with the people instead)that muslims later can find out. This is in line with a hadith that Rasulullah pbuh urges the muslim to respect the people of the book’s religion and their book but not to use it as a reference.
Other comments are appreciated.
salaam,
Iwan
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Thanks Brother Iwan for your comments. My understanding is that Allah Book is the one and only which has been sent to all Messengers in all times. See my earlier post for Ayas confirming this understanding.(https://topicsfromquran.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/who-are-ahlal-kitab/)
So, what could have happened is that since Allah’s Book is challenging and requires deep pondering, for some portions of it, the religious clergy in earlier time, put forth another book, which they wrote with their own hands and attributed it to be by inspiration of God. In order to gain control of masses, they hid the original book and only put forth their own written book which had all sort of contradictory stories. They probably understood the Ayat related to Prophet Noah’s Era as his age and they assumed that people at earlier times had longer life spans, So in thier man made book,they made up ages of other prophets by themselves.
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[…] https://topicsfromquran.com/2018/04/16/age-of-prophet-noah-a-s/ […]
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i know how devil sways people, who call living human beings who were prophets as ummah is pure evidence that you have fallen for waswasah, and you are defining Quran as devil wants to… good luck,
pray to Allah that Allah remove you from blindness..
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Thanks for your prayers. Of course the prophets mentioned in Al-Quran were living human beings. Al-Quran in Sura 16, ayat 120 calls prophet Ibrahim (a.s) as Ummat as well.
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Salamun alaikum brother, I find your interpertation of this verse intriguing. My only problem with understanding Noah here as a period of time to be somewhat contradicting the rest of the verse and the next one as well. For example, the rest of 29:14 reads is “thus the deluge overtook them while they were unjust”. Doesnt the word thus or (fa) describe sequence of order meaning that the flood took place after the 1000 sana less 50 am?
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Salam Brother,
My understanding is that prophet Nooh (a.s) as a person had a normal life span like other human beings created by Allah (An extra ordinary long life span would have created many other logistics, family and community problems for him) There is an era of time named after prophet Nooh (a.s). When exactly this era of time started or ended is difficult to reconcile with the history as we know. Prophet Nooh as a person could have lived any time during that era, even towards the end of the that era. The indication of the end of that era would be the deluge which took away the rejecters of the Book of Allah out from the (Holy) land and thus the Holy land after that era was inhabited by people who were the believers in the Book of Allah.
The word in Arabic that would definitely make certain some event taking place after another is ‘Thumma’/ ‘ثُمَّ’
Thanks
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اسلام و علیکم
It has been an interesting read, however, I have a few questions regarding the meanings extracted here and the method/process involved in reaching to the conclusion you reached. I will first limit my inquiry to the 29:14 reference for which I have Three questions as given below;
Q 1
Can I have a little more explanation about how you actually derived these meanings, as per word-root and compound-word meanings like,
فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ
How did you conclude what فَلَبِثَ meant here in isolation and along with “فِيهِمْ,” and how many other available contexts are there for this word’s use (from within and out of Quran) when talking about a stretch of time, or any other thing?
Also, any other meanings that might also apply and make sense, even if not the desired one.
Q 2
What available meanings are there for the word عَامًا in context of being used for time periods? And how did you arrive to the conclusion, linguistically, for the meanings that suggest it might be for lunar years?
Q 3
Also, how does the الطُّوفَانُ analogy in singular noun here apply to an ummah or nations spread over a longer stretch of time? Would that suggest that there were multiple floods whenever the people went astray from the teachings of prophet Nooh علیہ سلام?
Or if it is one الطُّوفَانُ which is mentioned, doesn’t it contradict the whole central idea of such an exegesis if prophet Nooh علیہ سلام himself wasn’t present at the time of flood and it was just the nations that drowned?
Once I have a response in regards to this query, I will insha Allah move to the next verses to clear my understanding and satisfy my sense of reason. It seems like there’s a lot to be learnt from this for me.
May اللہ bring us both more closer to his truth through this exchange, Ameen.
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Salam to you,
Thanks a lot for your questions. It is always very inspiring to come across people with deep interest in the book of Allah. My thoughts on the points you mentioned are given below. I hope I understood your questions correctly and may be of some help to you:
For he occurrences of لَبِثَ in Quran , please see at below link:
https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=lbv#(29:14:6)
(2:259:25) labith’ta (have) you remained
فَأَمَاتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عَامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ قَالَ كَمْ لَبِثْتَ
(2:259:27) labith’tu I remained
قَالَ لَبِثْتُ يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ
(2:259:34) labith’ta you (have) remained
قَالَ بَلْ لَبِثْتَ مِائَةَ عَامٍ فَانْظُرْ إِلَىٰ طَعَامِكَ وَشَرَابِكَ لَمْ يَتَسَنَّهْ
(10:16:12) labith’tu I have stayed
فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًا مِنْ قَبْلِهِ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
(10:45:5) yalbathū they had not remained
وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ كَأَنْ لَمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِنَ النَّهَارِ يَتَعَارَفُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ
(11:69:11) labitha and not he delayed
قَالُوا سَلَامًا قَالَ سَلَامٌ فَمَا لَبِثَ أَنْ جَاءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍ
(12:42:14) falabitha so he remained
فَأَنْسَاهُ الشَّيْطَانُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهِ فَلَبِثَ فِي السِّجْنِ بِضْعَ سِنِينَ
(17:52:7) labith’tum you had remained
يَوْمَ يَدْعُوكُمْ فَتَسْتَجِيبُونَ بِحَمْدِهِ وَتَظُنُّونَ إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
(17:76:10) yalbathūna they (would) have stayed
وَإِذًا لَا يَلْبَثُونَ خِلَافَكَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
(18:12:8) labithū (they had) remained
ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَاهُمْ لِنَعْلَمَ أَيُّ الْحِزْبَيْنِ أَحْصَىٰ لِمَا لَبِثُوا أَمَدًا
(18:19:9) labith’tum have you remained
قَالَ قَائِلٌ مِنْهُمْ كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ قَالُوا لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ
(18:19:11) labith’nā We have remained
قَالَ قَائِلٌ مِنْهُمْ كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ قَالُوا لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ
(18:19:20) labith’tum you have remained
قَالُوا رَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا لَبِثْتُمْ
(18:25:1) walabithū And they remained
وَلَبِثُوا فِي كَهْفِهِمْ ثَلَاثَ مِائَةٍ سِنِينَ وَازْدَادُوا تِسْعًا
(18:26:5) labithū they remained
قُلِ اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا لَبِثُوا لَهُ غَيْبُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
(20:40:25) falabith’ta Then you remained
فَلَبِثْتَ سِنِينَ فِي أَهْلِ مَدْيَنَ ثُمَّ جِئْتَ عَلَىٰ قَدَرٍ يَا مُوسَىٰ
(20:103:4) labith’tum you remained
يَتَخَافَتُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا عَشْرًا
(20:104:10) labith’tum you remained
إِذْ يَقُولُ أَمْثَلُهُمْ طَرِيقَةً إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا يَوْمًا
(23:112:3) labith’tum did you remain
قَالَ كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ عَدَدَ سِنِينَ
(23:113:2) labith’nā We remained
قَالُوا لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ فَاسْأَلِ الْعَادِّينَ
(23:114:3) labith’tum you stayed
قَالَ إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا لَوْ أَنَّكُمْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
(26:18:6) walabith’ta and you remained
قَالَ أَلَمْ نُرَبِّكَ فِينَا وَلِيدًا وَلَبِثْتَ فِينَا مِنْ عُمُرِكَ سِنِينَ
(29:14:6) falabitha and he remained
فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا
(30:55:7) labithū they remained
وَيَوْمَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ يُقْسِمُ الْمُجْرِمُونَ مَا لَبِثُوا غَيْرَ سَاعَةٍ
(30:56:7) labith’tum you remained
لَقَدْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْبَعْثِ
(33:14:11) talabbathū they (would) have hesitated
ثُمَّ سُئِلُوا الْفِتْنَةَ لَآتَوْهَا وَمَا تَلَبَّثُوا بِهَا إِلَّا يَسِيرًا
(34:14:24) labithū they (would have) remained
أَنْ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ الْغَيْبَ مَا لَبِثُوا فِي الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِينِ
(37:144:1) lalabitha Certainly, he (would have) remained
لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطْنِهِ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ
(46:35:17) yalbathū remained
كَأَنَّهُمْ يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَ مَا يُوعَدُونَ لَمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِنْ نَهَارٍ
(79:46:5) yalbathū they had remained
كَأَنَّهُمْ يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَهَا لَمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلَّا عَشِيَّةً أَوْ ضُحَاهَا
Active participle
(78:23:1) lābithīna (They will) be remaining
لَابِثِينَ فِيهَا أَحْقَابًا
a- Ayat 10:5 states that the cycle of Moon is for the calculations of years/calendars. The word used here is السِّنِينَ
b- Since Arabs use Lunar calendar, there may not be a separate word for Solar year. If some one wants to say solar year in Arabic, it has to be made clear giving more information and context. Similarly as English use Solar calendar, therefore when they use the word ‘Year’ it would mean solar year, unless they specifically add information that lunar year is intended.
c- Even for agricultural purpose which is done according to seasons, the word used for ‘year’ is السِّنِينَ in 12:47, which gives more emphasis to the idea that Arabic calendar and when they say ‘year’ in their language it is Lunar only.
I made some revisions in the post indicating that the usage of different word for ‘Year’ are not yet clear to me.
The occurrence of these two words in Al-Quran are given below:
https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=snw#(12:47:4)
Nominal
(1) Noun
(7:130:5) bil-sinīna with years (of famine)
وَلَقَدْ أَخَذْنَا آلَ فِرْعَوْنَ بِالسِّنِينَ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ
(10:5:12) l-sinīna (of) the years
وَقَدَّرَهُ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ
(12:42:18) sinīna years
فَأَنْسَاهُ الشَّيْطَانُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهِ فَلَبِثَ فِي السِّجْنِ بِضْعَ سِنِينَ
(12:47:4) sinīna years
قَالَ تَزْرَعُونَ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ دَأَبًا فَمَا حَصَدْتُمْ فَذَرُوهُ فِي سُنْبُلِهِ
(17:12:18) l-sinīna (of) the years
لِتَبْتَغُوا فَضْلًا مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَلِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ
(18:11:6) sinīna years
فَضَرَبْنَا عَلَىٰ آذَانِهِمْ فِي الْكَهْفِ سِنِينَ عَدَدًا
(18:25:6) sinīna years
وَلَبِثُوا فِي كَهْفِهِمْ ثَلَاثَ مِائَةٍ سِنِينَ وَازْدَادُوا تِسْعًا
(23:112:7) sinīna (of) years
قَالَ كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ عَدَدَ سِنِينَ
(26:18:10) sinīna years
قَالَ أَلَمْ نُرَبِّكَ فِينَا وَلِيدًا وَلَبِثْتَ فِينَا مِنْ عُمُرِكَ سِنِينَ
(26:205:4) sinīna (for) years
أَفَرَأَيْتَ إِنْ مَتَّعْنَاهُمْ سِنِينَ
(30:4:3) sinīna years
فِي بِضْعِ سِنِينَ
(2) Time adverb
(20:40:26) sinīna (some) years
فَلَبِثْتَ سِنِينَ فِي أَهْلِ مَدْيَنَ ثُمَّ جِئْتَ عَلَىٰ قَدَرٍ يَا مُوسَىٰ
Noun
(2:96:14) sanatin year(s)
يَوَدُّ أَحَدُهُمْ لَوْ يُعَمَّرُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ
(5:26:6) sanatan years
قَالَ فَإِنَّهَا مُحَرَّمَةٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً يَتِيهُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ
(22:47:12) sanatin year(s)
وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
(29:14:9) sanatin year(s)
فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا
(32:5:15) sanatin years
ثُمَّ يَعْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
(46:15:20) sanatan year(s)
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً قَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِي أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ
(70:4:11) sanatin year(s)
تَعْرُجُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ خَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ
https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Ewm#(12:49:6)
Noun
(2:259:20) ʿāmin year(s)
فَأَمَاتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عَامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ
(2:259:36) ʿāmin year(s)
قَالَ بَلْ لَبِثْتَ مِائَةَ عَامٍ فَانْظُرْ إِلَىٰ طَعَامِكَ وَشَرَابِكَ لَمْ يَتَسَنَّهْ
(9:28:12) ʿāmihim this, their (final) year
فَلَا يَقْرَبُوا الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ بَعْدَ عَامِهِمْ هَٰذَا
(9:37:11) ʿāman one year
يُضَلُّ بِهِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُحِلُّونَهُ عَامًا
(9:37:13) ʿāman (another) year
وَيُحَرِّمُونَهُ عَامًا لِيُوَاطِئُوا عِدَّةَ مَا حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ
(9:126:7) ʿāmin year
أَوَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَنَّهُمْ يُفْتَنُونَ فِي كُلِّ عَامٍ مَرَّةً أَوْ مَرَّتَيْنِ
(12:49:6) ʿāmun a year
ثُمَّ يَأْتِي مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ عَامٌ فِيهِ يُغَاثُ النَّاسُ
(29:14:12) ʿāman year(s)
فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا
(31:14:11) ʿāmayni two years
حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ وَهْنًا عَلَىٰ وَهْنٍ وَفِصَالُهُ فِي عَامَيْنِ
The flood was limited to the nation of Nooh as evident in the below ayahs.
71:26 وَقَالَ نُوحٌ رَّبِّ لَا تَذَرْ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ دَيَّارًا
And Nooh, said. “O my Lord! leave not of the unbelievers, on the land
25:37 وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍ لَّمَّا كَذَّبُوا الرُّسُلَ أَغْرَقْنَاهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ آيَةً ۖ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا
And the nation of Nooh,- when they rejected the messengers, We drowned them, and We made them as a sign for mankind; and We have prepared for (all) wrong-doers a grievous penalty.
Only those people were drowned who rejected the ayahs of Allah.
10:73 فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَنَجَّيْنَاهُ وَمَن مَّعَهُ فِي الْفُلْكِ وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ خَلَائِفَ وَأَغْرَقْنَا الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا ۖ فَانظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الْمُنذَرِينَ
They rejected Him, but We delivered him, and those with him, in the Ark, and We made them inherit (the land) while We overwhelmed those who rejected Our signs. Thus see what was the end of those who were warned (but heeded not)!
The land in above ayat 71:26 should mean a specific land not the whole earth. The subsequent ayahs will tell us which specific land is being talked about i.e the Holy land of Haram in Makkah. Till this day we see that this land has been made devoid of apparent rejecters (kafirs) i.e rejecters are not allowed to live in this Holy land. Therefore. we can deduce that the reference of removal of rejecters by flood does not mean global flooding but means flushing out rejecters from the Holy land.
Further thoughts:
The idea of a person living for 1000 years is not according to Allah’s practice that we see. It would create a lot of problems for that person. A person in a community living for approx.. 40 generations, would freak out other people in the community. His friend’s, wives all would be long gone before him. If prophet Nooh would be living for that long, his own progeny i.e his family, sons, grandchildren, great grand children 40 generations apart would be hundreds of thousands in number alone. Al-Quran mentions that his son was drowned at the time of deluge, if this happened at the end of the 1000 years period, making it unlikely that an old person begotting a son at an age of around 950 years. Can only be feasible if not only prophet Nooh but every one else at that time was living a 1000 years on average. However no evidence on that and I would assume DNA and other scientific analysis of early humans do not reveal such longevity at any time in human history.
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