In the Name of Almighty Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
28 آية
بِسۡمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Surah Nuh is the 71st chapter of the Quran, containing 28 verses. Revealed in Makkah, it takes its name from the Prophet Noah, whose long mission to his people it recounts. Noah called his people to worship Allah alone for nine hundred and fifty years, both privately and publicly, promising them forgiveness and abundant provision if they believed, yet they persisted in disbelief and mocked him. The surah recounts his final prayer against the persistently disbelieving among his people and closes with his supplication for his parents and for the believers. Below you can read the full Surah Nuh in Arabic with a clear English translation and a verse-by-verse tafsir (explanation of the meaning) from Aysar al-Tafaseer, with the option to jump to any specific verse.
1. We sent Noah to his people and said to him: “Warn your people of Allah’s wrath and torment before His severe punishment descends on them in life on earth and in the Hereafter.”
2. So Noah told his people: “O people! I am here to exhort you. I have come to communicate to you your Lord’s message in a language that you understand, and to warn you of Allah’s punishment. Take care it is not inflicted on you as a result of your disbelief.”
3. Noah commanded them to do three things: a- To worship Allah Alone without associates. b- To fear Allah and His punishment and avoid what He forbade. c- To obey Noah in all that he commanded them and forbade them.
4. He promised them that if they did what he commanded them to do, Allah would forgive their previous evil deeds, and He would pardon the smaller offenses. Almighty Allah would also prolong their lives to an appointed term which He made the end of a long life. Then Noah informed them that Allah’s term, which He noted in the Mother of Books, cannot be delayed when it comes. Had they known the disgrace and regret they would face when their term was over, they would have hastened to believe and obey.
5. When Noah’s people did not believe him and threatened to stone him if he did not cease to call them to Allah and command them to do good, Noah turned to his Lord lamenting what he faced from his people during the nine hundred and fifty years he lived among them. He said: “Lord, I called my people day and night to worship You and believe in You. I did not stop calling them in observance of Your command.
7. “And every time I called them to affirm Your Oneness, and to strive to gain Your good pleasure so that You might forgive their evil deeds, they closed their ears with their fingers so as not to hear the truth that I call them to, and covered themselves with their clothes, so they would not look at me with hatred and contempt, and they persevere in their disbelief and sins and became too haughty to listen to the truth and to accept the advice I gave them.
9. “At times I would call them to you openly, while at others I would call them secretly. At still others I would combine call them both openly and in secret perhaps one of these methods of calling them would prove effective in convincing them.
10. “I said to them: ‘Seek your Lord’s forgiveness and ask Him to pardon your wicked deeds and the sins which you committed; for your Lord is All-Forgiving of sins of those who repent and return sincerely to Him.
11. “If you believe in your Lord and ask for His forgiveness, He will send down rain in abundance so that the earth can put forth crops and good things.
12. “He will multiply your wealth and riches, and increase your children. He will give you orchards which grow fruit and grant you flowing rivers that water your crops, fields, trees and your cattle, to increase your provisions.
16. “He made constellations and mansions for the moon and He made the light from the moon vary: it increases until it is very bright then begins to decrease until its light is scarcely seen. And He made the sun like a lantern whose light wipes out the darkness from the universe.
18. “Then you die and are buried in the earth and you become soil after remaining long in it. On Judgement Day Allah will indubitably bring you forth from the earth and you will be human beings again.
21. Addressing his Lord, Noah said that his people had disobeyed his command to them to worship Allah Almighty, and had denied what he had called them to. The weak had followed the ways of their leaders who had become ungrateful and arrogant due to their wealth and children. This was a loss for them, a deviation from the path of guidance and truth and a turning away from Allah’s mercy.
23. The haughty told the humble ones among their people: “Do not abandon the worship of your gods Wad, Suwa’, Yaghuth, Ya’uk and Nisr and do not worship Noah’s Allah.”
24. Their deities led many people astray, for they worshipped them instead of Allah. (The meaning may be that the leaders led astray many people.) The disbelief of those who are unjust unto themselves will only increase their perversity, and seal their hearts so that they will not be led to the truth and nor will they reach guidance.
25. Due to their numerous sins and transgression, and the persistence in their disbelief and their disobedience of their messenger, Allah Almighty drowned them in the flood. Then in the Hereafter He will admit them to Hellfire where they will experience torture. They will find none to save them from Allah’s wrath.
26. When Noah despaired of reforming his people, he said: “Lord! Do not leave any unbeliever alive on the face of this earth to live in any dwelling on earth.
27. “For, O Lord, if You leave any of them alive, they will mislead Your servants, and lure them away from guidance and faith. Those unbelieving perverts will only beget perverts like them.”
28. Noah continued praying to his Lord and said: “Lord! forgive my sins, and forgive those of my parents, and the sins of all those who entered my home believing in You, the One and Only, and that I am Your servant and messenger to the creation. Lord, forgive the sins of all believers, both women and men, who believed in my message and followed my call to them to believe in You. As for those who have wronged themselves by disbelieving in their Lord and His messenger, give them an increase in their loss and cast them out of Your mercy.”
Tafsir by Dr. Assaad Homad (1917–2011), Syrian scholar and jurist, author of Aysar al-Tafaseer, an accessible interpretation of the Quran reviewed by Sheikh Muhammad Mutwally Al-Shaarawi and certified by the Ministries of Awqaf in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. English translation by the Homad family. Read more about the author and this tafsir →
Source: This series of Tafsir books has been made available online by the family of Dr. Assaad Homad (may Allah have mercy on him). These volumes were entirely digitized to provide an accessible and easy format for todays digital age. Please keep Dr. Assaad and his family in your sincere prayers.
تم إتاحة هذه السلسلة من كتب التفسير عبر الإنترنت من قبل عائلة الدكتور أسعد حومد (رحمه الله). لقد قمنا برقمنة هذه المجلدات بالكامل لتوفير تنسيق يسهل الوصول إليه واستخدامه في عصرنا الرقمي الحالي. نرجو منكم ألا تنسوا الدكتور أسعد وعائلته من صالح دعائكم.