NOAH AND THE FLOOD.

We formerly sent Noah [Nooḥ] unto his people, saying, Verily I am unto you a plain admonisher that ye worship not [any] but God. Verily I fear for you, if ye worship any other, the punishment of an afflictive day in this world and in the world to come.-But the chiefs who disbelieved among his people replied, We see thee not to be other than a man, like unto us; and we see not any to have followed thee except the meanest of us, as the weavers and the cobblers, at first thought (or rashly), nor do we see you to have any excellence above us: nay, we imagine you to be liars in your claim to the apostolic commission. He said, O my people, tell me, if I have an evident proof from my Lord and He hath bestowed on me mercy (the gift of prophecy) from Himself which is hidden from you, shall we compel you to receive it when ye are averse thereto ? We cannot do so. And, O my people, I ask not of you any riches for it; namely, for delivering my message. My reward is not due from any but God; and I will not drive away those who have believed as ye have commanded me [because they are poor people]. Verily they shall meet their Lord at the resurrection, and He will recompense them, and will exact for them [reparation] from those who have treated them with injustice, and driven them away. But I see you [to be] a people who are ignorant of the end of your case. And, O my people, who will defend me against God if I drive them away? Will ye not then consider? And I do not say unto you, I have the treasures of God; nor [do I say], I know the things unseen; nor do I say, Verily I am an angel; nor do I say, of those whom your eyes

contemn, God will by no means bestow on them good: (God best knoweth what is in their minds :) verily I should in that case be [one] of the offenders.-They replied, O Noah, thou hast disputed with us and multiplied disputes with us: now bring upon us that punishment wherewith thou threatenest us, if thou be of those that speak truth. He said, Only God will bring it upon you, if He please to hasten it unto you; for it is His affair, not mine; and ye shall not escape God: nor will my counsel profit you, if I desire to counsel you, if God desire to lead you into error. He is your Lord; and unto Him shall ye be brought back. (xi. 27-36.) And it was said by revelation unto Noah, Verily there shalt not believe of thy people [any] but they who have already believed; therefore be not grieved for that which they have done. (xi. 38.)

And he uttered an imprecation upon them, saying, O my Lord, leave not upon the earth any one of the unbelievers; for if Thou leave them, they will lead Thy servants into error, and will not beget [any] but a wicked, ungrateful [offspring]. O my Lord, forgive me and my parents (for they were believers), and whomsoever entereth my house (my abode, or my place of worship), being a believer, and the believing men, and the believing women, (to the day of resurrection,) and add not to the offenders [aught] save destruction. (lxxi. 27-29.)

And God answered his prayer, and said, Construct the ark in our sight and according to our revelation, and speak not unto Me concerning those who have offended, to beg Me not to destroy them; for they [shall be] drowned. And he constructed the ark; and whenever a company of his people passed by him, they derided him. He said, If ye deride us, we will deride you, like as ye deride, when we are saved and ye are drowned, and ye shall know on whom shall come a punishment which shall render him vile, and whom shall befall a lasting punishment. [Thus he was employed] until when Our decree for their destruction came

to pass, and the baker's oven overflowed with water1 (for this was a signal unto Noah), We said, Carry into it (that is, into the ark) of every pair, male and female, of each of these descriptions, two (and it is related that God assembled for Noah the wild beasts and the birds and other creatures, and he proceeded to put his hands upon each kind, and his right hand fell always upon the male, and his left upon the female, and he carried them into the ark), and thy family (excepting him upon whom the sentence of destruction hath already been pronounced, namely, Noah's wife, and his son Canaan: but Shem and Ham and Japheth and their three wives he took), and those who have believed; but there believed not with him save a few: they were six men and their wives: and it is said that all who were in the ark were eighty, half of whom were men and half women. And Noah said, Embark ye therein. In the name of God [be] its course and its mooring.2 Verily my Lord is very forgiving

1 Or, as the original literally signifies, boiled over [or boiled], which is consonant to what the Rabbins say, that the waters of the deluge were boiling hot.-This oven was, as some say, at El-Koofeh, in a spot whereon a mosque now stands; or, as others rather think, in a certain place in India, or else at 'Eynel-Wardeh in Mesopotamia. Some pretend that it was the same oven which Eve made use of to bake her bread in, being of a form different from those we use, having the mouth in the upper part, and that it descended from patriarch to patriarch till it came to Noah. It is remarkable that Mohammad, in all probability, borrowed this circumstance from the Persian Magi, who also fancied that the first waters of the deluge gushed out of the oven of a certain old woman named Zala Cûfa. -But the word "tennoor," which is here translated "oven," also signify

or

ing "the superficies of the earth," or "a place whence waters spring forth," "where they are collected," some suppose it means no more in this passage than the spot or fissure whence the first eruption of waters broke forth.-S.

2 It is a custom of many Muslims to pronounce these words, 'In the name of God be its course and its mooring,' on embarking for any voyage.-L. The commentators tell us that Noah was two years in building the ark, which was framed of Indian plane-tree; that it was divided into three stories, of which the lower was designed for the beasts, the middle one for the men and women, and the upper for the birds; and the men were separated from the women by the body of Adam, which Noah had taken into the ark. This last is a tradition of the Eastern Christians.-S.

[and] merciful. And it moved along with them amid waves like mountains; and Noah called unto his son, Canaan, who was apart from the ark, O my child, embark with us, and be not with the unbelievers! He replied, I will betake me to a mountain which will secure me from the water. [Noah] said, There is nought that will secure to-day from the decree of God [any] but him on whom He hath mercy. And the waves intervened between them; so he became [one] of the drowned. And it was said, O earth, swallow up thy water (whereupon it drank it up, except what had descended from heaven, which became rivers and seas), and, O heaven, cease from raining;—and the water abated, and the decree was fulfilled, and it (namely, the ark) rested on El-Joodee (a mountain of El-Jezeereh, near El-Mósil); and it was said, Perdition to the offending people ! 1 (xi. 38-46.)

And Noah called upon his Lord, and said, O my Lord, verily my son is of my family, and Thou hast promised me to save them, and verily Thy promise is true, and Thou art the most just of those who exercise judgment. God replied, O Noah, verily he is not of thy family who should be saved, or of the people of thy religion. Verily it (namely, thine asking me to save him) is not a righteous act; for he was an unbeliever, and there is no safety for the unbelievers; therefore ask not of me that wherein thou hast no knowledge. I admonish thee, lest thou become [one] of the ignorant.-Noah said, O my Lord, I beg Thee to preserve me from asking Thee that wherein I have no knowledge; and if Thou do not forgive me and have mercy upon me, I shall be of those who suffer loss.-It was said, O Noah, descend from the ark,2 with peace from Us, and blessings,

1 The original of this passage is considered the most sublime in the Kurán.

2 The Moḥammadans say that Noah went into the ark on the tenth

of Rejeb, and came out of it on the

tenth of Moharram; which therefore became a fast so that the whole time of Noah's being in the ark according to them was six months.— S. (B.)

upon thee and upon peoples [that shall proceed] from those who are with thee in the ark (that is, their believing posterity); but peoples [that shall proceed] from those who are with thee We will permit to enjoy the provisions of this world; then a painful punishment shall befall them from Us, in the world to come; they being unbelievers.

(xi. 47--50.)