Noah (Nooh)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
We sent Noah to his nation, saying: 'Give warning to your nation before a painful punishment overtakes them' 1 [Noah] said, "My people! I am but a plain warner to you, 2 (Bidding you): Serve Allah and keep your duty unto Him and obey me, 3 "So He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a stated Term: for when the Term given by Allah is accomplished, it cannot be put forward: if ye only knew." 4 He said: "O my Lord! Verily, I have called my people night and day (i.e. secretly and openly to accept the doctrine of Islamic Monotheism). 5 but my call has only caused them to flee farther and farther away [from Thee]. 6 And verily so oft as I call them, that Thou mayest forgive them, they place their fingers into their ears, and wrap themselves with their garments, and persist, and are stiff-necked. 7 "Then verily, I called to them openly (aloud); 8 and spoke to them in public and in private." 9 "I said (to them): 'Ask forgiveness from your Lord; Verily, He is Oft-Forgiving; 10 He will let loose the sky for you in plenteous rain, 11 increase your wealth and sons; and grant you gardens and waterways. 12 What ails you, that you look not for majesty in God, 13 And surely He hath created you by stages. 14 See you not how Allah has created the seven heavens one above another, 15 And has placed the moon therein, an illumination, and has placed the sun, a lighted lamp? 16 And Allah has caused you to grow out of the earth so wondrously, 17 He will make you return to it and then take you out of it again. 18 "'And God has made the earth a wide expanse for you, 19 that thereof you may thread ways, ravines." 20