Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.
God subsequently sent Noah as His messenger. He was granted an exceptionally long life of nine hundred and fifty years. During this extended period, he continued to show people the right path, generation after generation. But only a few people heeded his words. The rest persisted in their sinful ways. Then, in accordance with the ways of God, a huge flood engulfed them by way of punishment. Noah and his small band of followers were saved in a boat, while all the rest were drowned.
At that time, human population was probably concentrated only in the region of Asia known as Mesopotamia. The men and women saved in the wake of this flood settled afterwards in other parts of the world. Their race multiplied until it spread over the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.
After the death of Noah, his people continued for a considerable time to adhere to the divine path shown by him. But again, rot set in in later generations and they again deviated from the path of monotheism as well as of justice. God’s messengers—the Quran has mentioned twenty-six by name—continued to come for several thousand years. The Hadith tell us that about one hundred thousand messengers came to the world. In this way a long period elapsed between Adam and Messiah, when God’s messengers continued to come to the world in almost every generation. But each time only a few individuals believed in them. The majority rejected these prophets in every age.