66.10 – the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot
Here the Quran pairs the wife of Noah with the wife of Lot, saying that they both betrayed their husbands. For doing so, they are commanded to enter hell. Though their husbands are “righteous servants,” they cannot prevent God’s judgment. The “parable” (mathal) seems to be that the relatives of God’s messengers will be judged on the basis of what they do, and that blood relations will not help them.
The idea that the wife of Noah betrays her husband does not appear in any of the Quran’s seven versions of the Noah story (see note at 71.1), nor in the Torah account (Genesis 6:8–9:29). Muslim commentators debated the idea that the wife of a prophet could betray her husband, showing a concern for the infallibility (‘iṣma) of prophets.