Recordings › The Prophet Noah (a.s.) Did Not Live for 950 Years -Mufti Abu Layth · 11 Aug 2018 › Segment 1 of 3
Did the Prophet Nuh really live for 950 years?
muftis sunna sunnat sunan prophetic practice koran quraan al-quran sura soorah surat suwar soora chapter ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat salam as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam peace greetingDid Nuh live 950 years? The two words for year in Quran 29:14
Play from 0:00
The video loads from YouTube only when you press play. Click a time in the transcript to seek.
Watch this part
Open on YouTube at 0:00The player starts at 0:00, the beginning of this part.
This segment0:00 to 3:53 · 3 min 53 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenNuh did not literally live 950 years, Mufti Abu Layth says. The verse's use of two different words for year, sana and 'am, is deliberate and not just rhetorical variation.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth opens by saying that Nuh did not live for nine hundred and fifty years, anticipating the objection that this goes against the Quran, and asks listeners to hear him out. He reads the verse of Surah al-Ankabut that says Nuh remained among his people a thousand sana except fifty 'am, and asks why Allah uses two different Arabic words for year in the same phrase. He notes the common explanation that this is rhetorical variation to avoid repeating a word, grants that it is a point, but asks why Allah would not simply say nine hundred and fifty years if that were all that was meant.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Nuh did not literally live for nine hundred and fifty years and that the Quran's use of two different words for year in 29:14, sana and 'am, is deliberate rather than mere rhetorical variation.
“no Ali Salaam did not live for a thousand years like what people think but if you look at this verse of the Quran”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine0:00 to 3:53 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
tip Nora ELISA Lam live for nine hundred and fifty years no he did not huh you going against the Quran you Cathy hold your horses people hold your horses brace yourselves brace yourself brace yourselves no Ali Salaam did not live for a thousand years like what people think but if you look at this verse of the Quran okay you're gonna have two people
brace yourselves for this okay now Allah mentions about no Holly Salaam philosophy o me he that he stayed like he was amongst his people that he was what is it it mentioned what is the Alpha 17 unless I'm seen Hartmann isn't it so yeah so he stayed in he amongst his people a thousand years except 50
years now what's interesting interesting here is why did Allah use different words to refer to the word year so those of you that speak Arabic and I'm sure this some here that why did Allah say so why did Allah say yes so that's that's that's correct you Marcelino hand Aleppo me he so let me just bring this
up don't wanna miss read it right so we've got this here yeah well Akkad R Selna no honey laughs told me he that we sent no ELISA Lam to his people fella Peterffy him al fascinating Allah from cinnamon ha ha - wahoo Molly moon right now this for example in surah ANCA boots now you've got here that Allah says we sent North to his people and you remained amongst them for Lobby 13 alpha Senate in right so 1000
Sena Allah from Cena Armin except 50 armed now Sunnah means here and Armenia in our week why did Allah use two different words to refer to ya why did he use two different words right why not say Senna Senna um so one obvious one kind of thing you have is where people say people say that well oh this is just for language rhetoric to
make it sound good so it has a flow so you know Allah doesn't want to repeat the same word point point point that's that point you gotta be fair it's a point but then tell me people could not a larger say 950 years what's so difficult about Allah saying you know that this army is in our home see that there is you know that they was all if you want to use um um you know so now just want to say 950 years why say a
thousand years al fascinated alarm see now except 50 years right now this is so some people have argued that there is a linguistic difference between sauna and okay what I'm going to now I want to highlight that difference and say that look this was not just mentioned as a coincidence it was much greater than what people took it to be so people thought oh this is just a las just using a style like he doesn't want to say you know alpha Sena in LA from Cena sauna so he just changed
Paragraphs overlapping 0:00 to 3:53. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-08-11-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, August 11). Did the Prophet Nuh really live for 950 years? [Video, segment 2018-08-11-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Did the Prophet Nuh really live for 950 years?" Video, segment 2018-08-11-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded August 11, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-08-11-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Did the Prophet Nuh really live for 950 years?}}, year = {2018}, month = {8}, date = {2018-08-11}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-08-11-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.