Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: ((And We saved him and his family from the great distress * and made his descendants the ones who remain)).

Allah Mighty and Majestic said: Who are his family? Do we say the intended meaning is the believers, or do we say that "family" (ahli) refers specifically to the man's private household, because there is a difference between "Al" (family) and "Ahl" (household)? "Al" refers to followers, while "Ahl" refers to the specific private household of the man, as Allah the Exalted said: This does not include the entire community, but rather the specific household of the house. So do we say the intended meaning is his family, who are his specific private household? This is the closest interpretation of the verse. However, in other verses, it is indicated that the one who was saved was he and those who believed with him.
Now, an exception is made from the family of Noah: his son who disbelieved in him, for he was overtaken by the drowning. When Noah asked his Lord: فَقَالَ رَبِّ إِنَّ ابْنِي مِنْ أَهْلِي وَإِنَّ وَعْدَكَ الْحَقُّ وَأَنْتَ أَحْكَمُ الْحَاكِمِينَ 45 قالَ يَا نُوحُ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكَ إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ فَلَا تَسْأَلْنِ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنِّي أَعِظُكَ أَنْ تَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ So he said, "My Lord, indeed my son is of my family, and indeed Your promise is the truth, and You are the best of judges." He said, "O Noah, indeed he is not of your family. Indeed, he is one who does other than righteous work. So do not ask Me about that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, I advise you not to be among the ignorant." And an exception is also made from that regarding his wife, as Allah the Exalted said in Surat al-Tahrim: How did they betray them? By disbelief, not by lewdness or fornication, because it is impossible for Allah to make the wife of a Prophet commit fornication, for fornication is impure. And Allah the Exalted said: So the betrayal of the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot was by disbelief. And disbelief can be present in the wife of a Prophet while he is unaware of it. For this reason, He said: Meaning, they concealed the disbelief from Noah and from Lot. The point is that "family" (ahli) here is not in its general sense. So do we say it is general but intended to be specific, or is it a general term that is specified? It is a general term that is specified. Because a general term that is intended to be specific must be known to the addrescent from the beginning that only the specific meaning is intended. As for something that is not known except by another text, this is called a general term that is specified.
Now, Allah Mighty and Majestic said: "Distress" (karb) means the opposite of ease. The person who is distressed is the one who has been struck by what he dislikes. And nothing is greater than the distress of death. And this distress that struck his people was a great distress because it was drowning. A person dies while looking on. I mean, a person dies from an illness, or dies from something he knows he has no power to remove. But with drowning, he dies while hoping to be saved. So you find him trying to save himself with all his strength, but it does not happen. So it is as if he is killed by death while looking at it. For this reason, it became a great distress, because it is death by drowning. And similar to it is death by burning in fire, because he dies by something he feels he is able to escape from, but he is unable to do so, so the death falls upon him more severely.