The Ark, the Overturned Cities, and a Wife Who Laughed

Hizb 23 opens with an assurance that God provides for every creature and a rebuke of those who mock the Prophet's message, before retelling the destruction narratives already carried in Al-Araf with a different emphasis and additional detail. Noah builds his ark under God's instruction while his own people mock him, and his son refuses to board and drowns despite Noah's appeal, the ark finally coming to rest on Mount Judi once the flood recedes. Hud warns the tribe of Ad, and Salih warns Thamud, whose she-camel, given as a divine sign, is killed by the tribe and brings the destruction Salih had promised.

The hizb's longest single scene follows: angelic visitors arrive at Abraham's home in human form, and his wife laughs in disbelief on being told she will bear a son in her old age, before the angels reveal they are traveling on to warn Lot's people. Abraham pleads on that people's behalf even as the angels make clear the judgment against them is already settled.

The hizb closes with the destruction itself, cities overturned and struck with stones of baked clay, an account the sura tells without naming Sodom directly but describing it in unmistakable terms as a warning example for later generations.