Surah Nuh: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

We sent Noah too as a prophet to his people, to warn them before a painful punishment came upon them.

Noah had said to them: “O my people! I am a prophet sent to invite you, with counsel and warnings, to the system of life that is the reason for your creation. Do not forget that you have responsibilities toward Allah; know Him as He deserves, worship Him by responding to His call, guard against going against Him, and follow me in what you must do. If you follow me, Allah will forgive your past sins and let you live in safety and peace until the moment of death; and know well that when the appointed term He has decreed comes, He never defers it.”

Though Noah invited his people to the truth with counsel and warnings, his people stubbornly persisted in remaining in shirk and disbelief; so Noah prayed to his Lord thus: “My Lord, I have called my people night and day to believe in Your call, but my calling has done nothing but drive them further away.

My Lord, every time I called them to the belief of tawhid, which would be the means of Your forgiving them, they all but thrust their fingers into their ears so as not to hear, and closed their eyes so as not to see the truth; they dug in their heels ever more stubbornly in their shirk and disbelief, and grew arrogant and boastful, ungrateful and insolent.”

“I invited them in every way I could, both openly and in secret, and called out to them: ‘If you repent and give up living by the system of shirk and disbelief, and turn to Allah’s call, you will attain His compassion, mercy, and forgiveness; He will send down on you from the sky rains of plenty and blessing, and bestow on you wealth, property, children, vineyards, and gardens. O my people! What is the matter with you, that you ignore Allah, who created so many blessings for you, and do not appreciate His knowledge and power? Yet Allah has created you in the finest way, bringing you through various stages.

Do you never see and reflect on how Allah created the seven heavens, the sun in the sky as a source of light and heat, and the moon that reflects its light, in harmony with one another, and on the order He has established? Allah created you from the earth, just like plants; then He will cause you to die and return you to the earth, and when the time comes He will raise you again. Our Lord has endowed the earth with countless blessings and spread it out for your benefit like a carpet, and has created broad valleys and roads in it for you to travel through.’”

After Noah had explained all this to his people in detail, he said to his Lord: “My Lord! Despite my conveying the message with all my might, they were still ungrateful and turned away from Your commands. They followed those they saw as rich and powerful, whose wealth, property, and children have done nothing but increase their ruin and their wanton rebellion; what is more, they laid traps to silence me, and the leaders they followed said to them, ‘Never give up our sacred gods, the legacy of our forefathers: Wadd, Suwa, Yaghuth, Yauq, and Nasr.’”

“My Lord, by what they have done they have driven both themselves and others away from Your call. So prevent these wrongdoers from reaching their aims, and destroy them with the punishment they deserve.”

After this, because of what they had done, they were drowned in a great flood and passed from the face of the earth, and in the Hereafter they were condemned to the Fire; and they found no helper to save them from Allah’s punishment.

Then Noah completed his prayer thus: “My Lord, leave not one of those who associate partners with You and are ungrateful on the earth! For if You leave them, they will again lead Your servants astray, urge them to shirk and disbelief, and raise generations who associate partners with You. O my Lord! Forgive me, my mother and father, and those who come and go in my house as believers, and give the wrongdoers no opportunity.”