THE CHAPTER OF NOAH
(LXXI. Mecca.)
IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God. Verily, we sent Noah to his people, 'Warn thy people before there come to them a grievous torment!'
Said he, 'O my people! verily, I am to you an obvious warner, that ye serve God and fear Him and obey me. He will pardon you your sins, and will defer you unto an appointed time; verily, God's appointed time when it comes will not be deferred, did ye but know!' Said he, 'My Lord! verily, I have called my people by night and day, and my call did but increase them in flight; and, verily, every time I called them, that Thou mightest pardon them, they placed their fingers in their ears and tried to cover themselves with their garments and persisted, and were very big with pride. Then I called them openly; then I published to them and I spoke to them in secret, and I said, "Ask forgiveness of your Lord, verily, He is very forgiving. He will send the rain upon you in torrents, and will extend to you wealth and children, and will make for you gardens, and will make for you rivers. What ails you that ye hope not for something serious from God, when He has created you by steps? Do ye not see how God has created the seven heavens in stories, and has set the moon therein for a light, and set the sun for a lamp? and God has made you grow out of the earth, and then He will make you return thereto, and will make you come forth therefrom; and God has made for you the earth a carpet that ye may walk therein in broad paths."'
Said Noah, 'My Lord! verily, they have rebelled against me, and followed him whose wealth and children have but added to his loss, and they have plotted a great plot, and said, "Ye shall surely not leave your gods: ye shall surely neither leave Wadd, nor Suwa'h, nor Yaghuth, nor Ya'uq, nor Nasr, and they led astray many."' And thou (Mohammed) wilt only increase the unjust in their error-because of their sins they were drowned and made to enter into the fire, and they found no helpers against God!
And Noah said, 'My Lord! leave not upon the earth one dweller of the misbelievers. Verily, Thou, if Thou shouldst leave them, they will lead astray Thy servants, and they will only bear for children sinners and misbelievers. My Lord! pardon me and my two parents, and whomsoever enters my house believing, and (pardon) the believers men and women-but Thou shalt only increase the unjust in loss.'
