The Book of Divine Unity · Hadith 487 (#Ḥadīth #2)

2 - حدثنا أحمد بن زياد جعفر الهمداني رحمه الله، قال: حدثنا علي بن إبراهيم بن هاشم، عن أبيه، عن عبد السلام بن صالح الهروي، عن الرضا عليه السلام قال: قلت له: لأي علة أغرق الله عز وجل الدنيا كلها في زمن نوح عليه السلام وفيهم الأطفال ومن لا ذنب له؟ فقال: ما كان فيهم الأطفال لأن الله عز وجل أعقم أصلاب قوم نوح وأرحام نسائهم أربعين عاما فانقطع نسلهم فغرقوا ولا طفل فيهم، وما كان الله عز وجل ليهلك بعذابه من لا ذنب له، وأما الباقون من قوم نوح عليه السلام فأغرقوا لتكذيبهم لنبي الله نوح عليه السلام وسائرهم أغرقوا برضاهم بتكذيب المكذبين، ومن غاب عن أمر فرضي به كان كمن شهده وأتاه.

2. Ahmad ibn Ziyad ibn Ja`far al-Hamdani said: `Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashim said, on the authority of his father, on the authority of `Abd Al-Salam ibn Salih al-Hirawi that Al-Rida said: I asked him, “For what reason did Allah, the Mighty and High, drown the whole of the earth in the time of Nuh , while there were children among them who were free of sin?” So he replied, There were no children among them, because Allah, the Mighty and High, made the male reproductive system infertile and the female wombs barren for forty years. Thus, their lineage was cut. So He drowned them while there were no children among them. Allah, the Mighty and High, does not destroy with His Punishment anyone who is without sin. As for the rest of Nuh’s people then they were drowned for belying Nuh, the Prophet of Allah, . They were all drowned for agreeing with the belying ones. Whoever is absent from a matter, and agrees to it, is like one that witnesses it and commits it.

Gradings are classical jarḥ-wa-taʿdīl, name-matched to a rijāl index (not individually re-verified).