NUH (Noah)
In the Name of God,1 the Gracious, the Merciful 2
1 We sent Nuh to his people: Warn your people before there comes to them a grievous penalty.
2 He said: O my people! I am to you a warner, clear and open:
3 That you should worship God, fear him, and obey me:
4 So he may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a stated term: for when the term given by God is accomplished, it cannot be put forward: if you only knew.
5 He said: O my Lord! I have called to my people night and day:
6 But my call only increases their flight.
7 And every time I have called to them, that you might forgive them, they have thrust their fingers into their ears, covered themselves up with their garments, grown obstinate, and given themselves up to arrogance.
8 So I have called to them aloud;
9 Further I have spoken to them in public and secretly in private,
10 Saying, Ask forgiveness from your Lord; for he is oft-forgiving;
11 He will send rain to you in abundance;
12 Give you increase in wealth and sons; and bestow on you gardens and bestow on you rivers.
13 What is the matter with you, that you place not your hope for kindness and longsuffering in God,
14 Seeing that it is he who created you in diverse stages?
15 Do you not see how God created the seven heavens one above another,
16 And made the moon a light in their midst, and made the sun as a lamp?
17 And God has produced you from the earth, growing,
18 And in the end he will return you to it, and raise you from the dead?
19 And God has made the earth for you as a carpet,
20 That you may go about in it, in spacious roads.
21 Nuh said: O my Lord! They have disobeyed me, but they follow men whose wealth and children give them no increase but only loss.
22 And they have devised a tremendous plot.
23 And they have said, abandon not your gods: abandon neither Wadd nor Suwa, neither Yaghuth nor Ya’uq, nor Nasr,
24 They have already misled many; and grant no increase to the wrongdoers but in straying.
25 Because of their sins they were drowned, and were made to enter the fire: and they found in lieu of God none to help them.
26 And Nuh said: O my Lord! Leave not of the unbelievers, a single one on earth!
27 For, if you leave them, they will but mislead your devotees, and they will breed none but wicked ungrateful ones.
28 O my Lord! Forgive me, my parents, all who enter my house in faith, and believing men and believing women: and to the wrongdoers grant no increase but in perdition!
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎