And he constructed the ship, and whenever an assembly of the eminent (11:38)

﴿وَيَصْنَعُ الْفُلْكَ وَكُلَّمَا مَرَّ عَلَيْهِ مَلَأٌ مِّن قَوْمِهِ سَخِرُوا مِنْهُ ۚ قَالَ إِن تَسْخَرُوا مِنَّا فَإِنَّا نَسْخَرُ مِنكُمْ كَمَا تَسْخَرُونَ﴾
[ هود: 38]

11:38 And he constructed the ship, and whenever an assembly of the eminent of his people passed by him, they ridiculed him. He said, "If you ridicule us, then we will ridicule you just as you ridicule.

Noah followed the command of his Lord, and immediately started building the Ark.
Whenever the leaders and noblemen among his people passed by, they made fun of him, because he was building the Ark and there was no water or rivers around.
When they continued to mock him, he said to these important people that if they mocked him and his people today when they were building the Ark, they also mocked them because of their ignorance of the fact that they would be drowned.

And as he was constructing the ship, whenever the chiefs of his people passed by him, they made a mockery of him. He said: "If you mock at us, so do we mock at you likewise for your mocking.

phonetic Transliteration

WayasnaAAu alfulka wakullama marra AAalayhi malaon min qawmihi sakhiroo minhu qala in taskharoo minna fainna naskharu minkum kama taskharoona

Abdullah Yusuf Ali - Translation

Forthwith he (starts) constructing the Ark: Every time that the chiefs of his people passed by him, they threw ridicule on him. He said: "If ye ridicule us now, we (in our turn) can look down on you with ridicule likewise!

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

And as he was constructing the ship, whenever the chiefs of his people passed by him, they mocked at him. He said: "If you mock at us, so do we mock at you likewise for your mocking."

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