The Holy Qur'an (Maulana Muhammad Ali)/71. Noah

71. Noah (Nuh)

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

¹ Surely We sent Noah to his people, saying: Warn thy people before there come to them a painful chastisement.

² He said: O my people, surely I am a plain warner to you:

³ That you should serve Allah and keep your duty to Him and obey me --

⁴ He will forgive you some of your sins and grant you respite to an appointed term. Surely the term of Allah, when it comes, is not postponed. Did you but know!

⁵ He said: My Lord, I have called my people night and day:

⁶ But my call has only made them flee the more.

⁷ And whenever I call to them that Thou mayest forgive them, they thrust their fingers in their ears and cover themselves with their garments, and persist and are big with pride.

⁸ Then surely I have called to them aloud,

⁹ Then spoken to them in public and spoken to them in private,

¹⁰ So I have said: Ask forgiveness of your Lord; surely He is ever Forgiving:

¹¹ He will send down upon you rain, pouring in abundance,

¹² And help you with wealth and sons, and make for you gardens, and make for you rivers.

¹³ What is the matter with you that you hope not for greatness from Allah?

¹⁴ And indeed He has created you by various stages.

¹⁵ See you not how Allah has created the seven heavens alike,

¹⁶ And made the moon therein a light, and made the sun a lamp?

¹⁷ And Allah has caused you to grow out of the earth as a growth,

¹⁸ Then He returns you to it, then will He bring you forth a (new) bringing forth.

¹⁹ And Allah has made the earth a wide expanse for you;

²⁰ That you may go along therein in spacious paths.

* * *

²¹ Noah said: My Lord, surely they disobey me and follow him whose wealth and children have increased him in naught but loss.

²² And they have planned a mighty plan.

²³ And they say: Forsake not your gods; nor forsake Wadd, nor Suwa', nor Yaguth and Ya'uq and Nasr.

²⁴ And indeed they have led many astray. And increase Thou the wrongdoers in naught but perdition.

²⁵ Because of their wrongs they were drowned, then made to enter Fire, so they found no helpers besides Allah.

²⁶ And Noah said My Lord, leave not of the disbelievers any dweller on the land.

²⁷ For if Thou leave them, they will lead astray Thy servants, and will not beget any but immoral, ungrateful ones.

²⁸ My Lord, forgive me and my parents and him who enters my house believing, and the believing men and the believing women. And increase nor the wrongdoers in aught but destruction!