The name of Prophet Nuh had been A’bd al-Ghaffaar. After the lashing of the storm, the rising of the water and the drowning of the people, the archangel Jibraeel approached him and said: Some time back, your profession was carpentry, now turn to pottery!
When Prophet Nuh had constructed numerous pots, Jibraeel said to him: God has commanded you to break the pots. Nuh hurled some of the pots onto the ground and broke them – some of them he hurled lightly while others he dashed with reluctance and disinclination. A little later Jibraeel observed that he (peace be upon him) was not breaking any more pots and so questioned: Why don’t you break them?
He (peace be upon him) replied: My heart is unwilling to break them for I have spent a lot of effort in constructing them.
Jibraeel said to him (peace be upon him): O’ Nuh! Do any of these pots possess life? Do they possess fathers, mothers etc.?
Continuing, he said: The earth and water are from God. Your only contribution was that you exerted yourself and constructed them, but yet you are reluctant and unwilling to break them. So how did you permit yourself to curse the people and destroy them all despite the fact that they had been created by God and possessed life and had fathers and mothers…?
Hearing this Nuh wept bitterly and intensely and hence came to acquire the title of Nuh. ( Jaame’ al-Nurain, pg. 122. )