Surah 71
Noah
Nuh 🚢
This surah focuses entirely on the life of a single messenger, detailing his 950 years of patient preaching, his creative ways of reaching out to his people, and their ultimate rejection of his message. It is named after Noah, whose personal struggles and prayers for justice are showcased throughout the text.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
1We sent Noah to his people: “Warn your people, before a painful punishment comes to them.”
2And so he said, “My people, I am here to warn you plainly.
3Serve God, be mindful of Him and obey me.
4He will forgive you your sins and spare you until your appointed time — when God’s appointed time arrives it cannot be postponed. If only you understood!”
5He said, “My Lord, I have called my people night and day,
6But the more I call them, the further they run away:
7Every time I call them, so that You may forgive them, they thrust their fingers into their ears, cover their heads with their garments, persist in their rejection, and grow more insolent and arrogant.
8I have tried calling them openly.
9I have tried preaching to them in public and speaking to them in private.
10I said, 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord: He is ever forgiving.
11He will send down abundant rain from the sky for you —
12He will give you wealth and sons; He will provide you with gardens and rivers.
13What is the matter with you? Why will you not fear God’s majesty,
14When He has created you stage by stage?
15Have you ever wondered how God created seven heavens, one above the other,
16Placed the moon as a light in them and the sun as a lamp,
17How God made you spring forth from the earth like a plant,
18How He will return you into it and then bring you out again,
19And how He has spread the Earth out for you
20To walk along its spacious paths?'”
21Noah said, “My Lord, they have disobeyed me and followed those whose riches and children only increase their ruin —
22Who have made a grand plan,
23Saying, “Do not renounce your gods! Do not renounce Wadd, Suwa, Yaghuth, Yauq, or Nasr!”
24They have led many astray. Lord, bring nothing but destruction down on the evildoers!”
25They were drowned and sent to Hell for their evildoings: they found no one to help them against God.
26And Noah said, “Lord, do not leave any of the disbelievers on the earth —
27If you leave them they will lead Your servants astray and beget only sinners and disbelievers —
28Lord, forgive me, my parents, and whoever enters my house as a believer. Forgive believing men and women but bring nothing but ruin down on the evildoers!”