All The verses they mention do not clearly teach a global flood, they mention water gushing forth from the earth and they not necessarily imply that it is speaking about the entire planet.

Muslim geologist Dr. Zaghloul El-Naggar states:

                       The word 'Earth' recurs in the Glorious Qur'an and in the Prophet's Ahadith referring to three other meanings according

                       to the context. Sometimes it refers to the whole planet and at other times, to the dry mass on which we live, while at

                       some other times, it indicates  the topsoil covering the dry land rocks.

                       (Dr. Zaghloul El-Naggar, Mountains to Stabilize the Earth, Source)


The Arabic word used for Earth is used in Surah 2:61 to refer to land mass and not the entire planet, also in Surah 2:71 the cow being described to the Israelites is one that wonders on the Earth, but the context obviously shows that the cow is wondering in a specific area close by and not that it could be wondering anywhere on planet Earth. Or in Surah 4:97 where the oppressed believers tell the angels that they were oppressed on Earth, but the context denotes that they were referring to the specific land that they were residing in.

The Arabic word ÇáúÃóÑúÖö does not only refer to the entire planet Earth, it could also refer to a certain area or piece of land.

The verses that Answering Islam has mentioned, it can be seen that they do not necessarily imply that they are referring to the entire planet Earth.

Surah 11:40 could be interpreted as the fountains of the earth gushing in the specific land of Noahs people.

Surah 11:44 could be interpreted as the specific land of Noah's people being told to "swallow up thy water".

Surah 23:27 could be interpreted as Noah being commanded to gather the male and female of species from his specific land. It is more believable than having all the species in the world fitting in his man made ark. It is also possible that all species of animals that were alive during that time were present in the land of Noah already. This is more believable than Noah having to travel around the entire planet (how long would that have taken him?) and try gathering all kinds of animals from there. It is also possible that all or many or certain kinds of species that were alive on planet earth that time were only present in the people of Noah's land.

Surah 54:11-14 could be interpreted as the specific land of Noah's people being gushed forth with springs.

Surah 71:26-27 could be interpreted in more than one way. One way is that Noah was praying against the disbelievers in his land. Another way is that Noah was making a general prayer against all disbelievers on planet earth; however that does not necessarily imply that the flood was global. Our Islamic sources (contrary to Biblical sources) do not tell us exactly how many years ago this event took place. Thus, we don't know how the people were spread about the earth at that time. It is said that Noah came after Adam by approximately ten generations. It would be far fetched to believe that in such a time span so many people spread throughout the entire planet. It is most likely that all the people on planet Earth were only Noah's people or some other people who did not live very far away from Noah's land. Therefore, a universal flood wouldn't be necessary inroder to wipe out all disbelievers from the face of the planet earth (America was supposedly not discovered at this time yet, so why have a flood occur there?) 

Answering Islam has not shown in his entire article why the word for Earth is speaking about the entire planet in the context of those verses that he has cited.

Ibn Abbass's References

As for the narrations cited from Ibn Abbass, these are most likely from the Israeliyaat sources (something that Ibn Abbass was known to pass off) and they are not binding upon us Muslims since our only sources of religious authority are the Qur'an and authentic Prophetic traditions

The only narration that he attempts to show was from the Prophet (peace be upon him) is:

According to Ibn Bashshar- Ibn `Athmah- Sa'id b. Bashir- Qatadah- al-Hasan- Samurah b. Jundub- the Prophet, in connection with commenting on God's word: `And We made his offspring the survivors': Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ibid, p. 369)

However, the chain of narration is weak. See Sheikh Albany's Jaami' Al Tirmidhi commentary on hadith no. 3230 & 3931. Also see Sheikh Al Albany's Salseelatil Ahaadeeth Al Da'eefa, Hadith no. 3683 for his detailed critique of the narration.

In conclusion, there are no clear texts in reliable Islamic sources that reject or accept Noah's flood as being universal. In order for the Christian or anyone else to level this argument successfully they must be able to clearly show that reliable Islamic sources do teach that a universal flood occurred.