لَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِۦ فَقَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُۥٓ إِنِّىٓ أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍۢ
Certainly We sent Noah to his people. He said, ‘O my people, worship Allah! You have no other god besides Him. Indeed I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day.’
قَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ مِن قَوْمِهِۦٓ إِنَّا لَنَرَىٰكَ فِى ضَلَٰلٍۢ مُّبِينٍۢ
The elite of his people said, ‘Indeed we see you in manifest error.’
قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ لَيْسَ بِى ضَلَٰلَةٌۭ وَلَٰكِنِّى رَسُولٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
He said, ‘O my people, I am not in error. Rather, I am an apostle from the Lord of all the worlds.
أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَٰلَٰتِ رَبِّى وَأَنصَحُ لَكُمْ وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
I communicate to you the messages of my Lord, and I am your well-wisher, and I know from Allah what you do not know.
أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَن جَآءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍۢ مِّنكُمْ لِيُنذِرَكُمْ وَلِتَتَّقُوا۟ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ
Do you consider it odd that a reminder from your Lord should come to you through a man from among yourselves, to warn you so that you may be Godwary and so that you may receive His mercy?’
فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَأَنجَيْنَٰهُ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥ فِى ٱلْفُلْكِ وَأَغْرَقْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ قَوْمًا عَمِينَ
But they denied him. So We delivered him and those who were with him in the ark, and We drowned those who denied Our signs. Indeed, they were a blind lot.
۞ وَإِلَىٰ عَادٍ أَخَاهُمْ هُودًۭا ۗ قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُۥٓ ۚ أَفَلَا تَتَّقُونَ
And to [the people of] ‘Ad [We sent] Hud, their brother. He said, ‘O my people, worship Allah! You have no other god besides Him. Will you not then be wary [of Him]?’
قَالَ ٱلْمَلَأُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِن قَوْمِهِۦٓ إِنَّا لَنَرَىٰكَ فِى سَفَاهَةٍۢ وَإِنَّا لَنَظُنُّكَ مِنَ ٱلْكَٰذِبِينَ
The elite of his people who were faithless said, ‘Indeed we see you to be in folly, and indeed we consider you to be a liar.’
قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ لَيْسَ بِى سَفَاهَةٌۭ وَلَٰكِنِّى رَسُولٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
He said, ‘O my people, I am not in folly. Rather, I am an apostle from the Lord of all the worlds.
أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَٰلَٰتِ رَبِّى وَأَنَا۠ لَكُمْ نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ
I communicate to you the messages of my Lord and I am a trustworthy well-wisher for you.
أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَن جَآءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍۢ مِّنكُمْ لِيُنذِرَكُمْ ۚ وَٱذْكُرُوٓا۟ إِذْ جَعَلَكُمْ خُلَفَآءَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ قَوْمِ نُوحٍۢ وَزَادَكُمْ فِى ٱلْخَلْقِ بَصْۜطَةًۭ ۖ فَٱذْكُرُوٓا۟ ءَالَآءَ ٱللَّهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
Do you consider it odd that there should come to you a reminder from your Lord through a man from among yourselves, so that he may warn you? Remember when He made you successors after the people of Noah, and increased you vastly in creation. So remember Allah’s bounties so that you may be felicitous.’
قَالُوٓا۟ أَجِئْتَنَا لِنَعْبُدَ ٱللَّهَ وَحْدَهُۥ وَنَذَرَ مَا كَانَ يَعْبُدُ ءَابَآؤُنَا ۖ فَأْتِنَا بِمَا تَعِدُنَآ إِن كُنتَ مِنَ ٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ
They said, ‘Have you come to [tell] us that we should worship Allah alone and abandon what our fathers have been worshiping? Then bring us what you threaten us with, should you be truthful.’
قَالَ قَدْ وَقَعَ عَلَيْكُم مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ رِجْسٌۭ وَغَضَبٌ ۖ أَتُجَٰدِلُونَنِى فِىٓ أَسْمَآءٍۢ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَآ أَنتُمْ وَءَابَآؤُكُم مَّا نَزَّلَ ٱللَّهُ بِهَا مِن سُلْطَٰنٍۢ ۚ فَٱنتَظِرُوٓا۟ إِنِّى مَعَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْمُنتَظِرِينَ
He said, ‘Punishment and wrath from your Lord has become due against you. Do you dispute with me regarding names, which you have named—you and your fathers—for which Allah has not sent down any authority? So wait! I too am waiting along with you.’
فَأَنجَيْنَٰهُ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥ بِرَحْمَةٍۢ مِّنَّا وَقَطَعْنَا دَابِرَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَا ۖ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ مُؤْمِنِينَ
Then We delivered him and those who were with him by a mercy from Us, and We rooted out those who denied Our signs and were not faithful.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
With verse 59 the sūra turns from argument to history, opening the cycle of messengers that runs to verse 102. al-Ṭabarsī reads the whole series as consolation for the Prophet — "to steady him under his people's harm, and to warn them against following those of old." Each story is cast in the same mould, and the commentators trace the pattern verse by verse: the messenger's single call, "O my people, worship God; you have no god but Him"; the malaʾ — the chiefs, so named, al-Mīzān and al-Ṭūsī note, "because they fill the assemblies with their dignity" — answering with the charge of "manifest error" (against Noah) or "folly" (against Hūd); the prophet's measured reply, "there is no error in me… I am a sincere, trustworthy adviser"; and the closing deliverance of the few and destruction of the deniers.
al-Ṭūsī mines the exchange for two characteristic Imāmī-ʿadlī points. Noah's "I know from God what you do not know" he reads as a refutation of those who held that knowledge of God is necessary (ḍarūrī) — "for Noah feared for them while knowing what they did not"; and Hūd's "that you may fear and that you may be shown mercy" he turns against the determinists (al-Mujbira), since it shows God did will faith of them. The same restraint that al-Ṭabarsī draws from "I am no fool but a messenger" — "a teaching that one not meet the foolish with base words" — runs through both prophets' answers.
Where al-Burhān and al-Qummī are sparing here — both explicitly defer the full stories of Noah, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ and Shuʿayb to Sūrat Hūd — al-Ṭabarsī is lavish, preserving the biographical lore the tradition attached to these prophets: Noah's vast lifespan and his serene word to the Angel of Death, "all that has passed of the world was but like my moving from the sun to the shade"; and, for ʿĀd, the famous account of the rain-delegation to Mecca, the three clouds, Qayl's fatal choice of the black one bearing "a barren wind" (46:24), and al-Bāqir's image of a locked "house of wind" of which only "the measure of a ring" was loosed upon them. ʿĀd's distinction — "He increased you amply in stature" — al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī both gloss with al-Bāqir's report that "they were like tall palms."
Yet even in its brevity al-Burhān supplies the passage's two most luminous Shīʿī touches. To "remember the favours (ālāʾ) of God" (69), al-Ṣādiq answers: "the greatest of God's favours upon His creation — they are our walāya." And Hūd's parting word, "then wait; I too am with you waiting" (71), al-Riḍā makes a charter of hope: "How excellent is patience and the awaiting of relief (intiẓār al-faraj)! Have you not heard the word of the righteous servant?" — so that the destroyed nations' threat becomes, read inwardly, the believer's discipline of expectation.