Nine Hundred and Fifty Years
“And We had certainly sent Nuh to his people, and he remained among them a thousand years minus fifty years.” (29:14)
The Quran states this plainly: 950 years of preaching. No other prophet is given such a duration. The theological point is not about longevity but about the depth of rejection: 950 years without success is the record of a people who had made their decision permanently.
The Surah Nuh version (71:5-20) shows what Nuh experienced: he called them publicly, privately, by day and by night; he offered them forgiveness, rain, children, wealth; he showed them the signs of creation. “And they put their fingers in their ears, covered themselves with their garments, persisted [in arrogance], and were excessively arrogant.” (71:7)
The Son and the Wife
“O Nuh, he is not of your family; indeed, he is [one whose] work was other than righteous.” (11:46)
When the flood came and Nuh called his son to board the ark, his son said: “I will take refuge on a mountain to protect me from the water.” Nuh said: there is no protection today from Allah’s decree except His mercy. The wave came between them.
Nuh had asked Allah to save his son — “Indeed, my son is of my family.” Allah responded: “He is not of your family” — meaning spiritual lineage, not biological. One’s family before Allah is not determined by blood but by faith.
His wife too was among those who were not saved (66:10).
The Ismaili Reading: The Cycle of Nuh
In Ismaili cosmology, each major prophet opens a dawr (era/cycle). Nuh is the second major prophet (natiq) after Adam — his cycle included the first shari’a binding on all people. The flood is read in ta’wil as the destruction of the people of zahir (exoteric literalism without batin) and the preservation of the people of ta’wil in the ark of spiritual knowledge.
See also: Nubuwwa Prophethood, Seerah Ibrahim, Quran Sciences, Seerah Yunus, Sabr, Fiqh Al Tahara