بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِ أَنْ أَنذِرْ قَوْمَكَ مِن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
Indeed We sent Noah to his people, [saying,] ‘Warn your people before a painful punishment overtakes them.’
قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي لَكُمْ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ
He said, ‘O my people! Indeed, I am a manifest warner to you
أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَاتَّقُوهُ وَأَطِيعُونِ
Worship Allah and be wary of Him, and obey me
يَغْفِرْ لَكُم مِّن ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَيُؤَخِّرْكُمْ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى ۚ إِنَّ أَجَلَ اللَّهِ إِذَا جَاءَ لَا يُؤَخَّرُ ۖ لَوْ كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
that He may forgive you some of your sins and respite you until a specified time. Indeed when Allah’s [appointed] time comes, it cannot be deferred, if you know.’
قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُ قَوْمِي لَيْلًا وَنَهَارًا
He said, ‘My Lord! Indeed, I have summoned my people night and day
فَلَمْ يَزِدْهُمْ دُعَائِي إِلَّا فِرَارًا
but my summons only increases their evasion
وَإِنِّي كُلَّمَا دَعَوْتُهُمْ لِتَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ جَعَلُوا أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِمْ وَاسْتَغْشَوْا ثِيَابَهُمْ وَأَصَرُّوا وَاسْتَكْبَرُوا اسْتِكْبَارًا
Indeed whenever I have summoned them, so that You might forgive them, they would put their fingers into their ears and draw their cloaks over their heads, and they were persistent [in their unfaith], and disdainful in [their] arrogance
ثُمَّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُهُمْ جِهَارًا
Again I summoned them aloud
ثُمَّ إِنِّي أَعْلَنتُ لَهُمْ وَأَسْرَرْتُ لَهُمْ إِسْرَارًا
and again appealed to them publicly and confided with them privately
فَقُلْتُ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفَّارًا
telling [them]: ‘‘Plead to your Lord for forgiveness. Indeed, He is all-forgiving
يُرْسِلِ السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْكُم مِّدْرَارًا
He will send for you abundant rains from the sky
وَيُمْدِدْكُم بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ وَيَجْعَل لَّكُمْ أَنْهَارًا
and aid you with wealth and sons, and provide you with gardens and provide you with streams
مَّا لَكُمْ لَا تَرْجُونَ لِلَّهِ وَقَارًا
What is the matter with you that you do not look upon Allah with veneration
وَقَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ أَطْوَارًا
though He has created you in [various] stages
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
What the passage says. God sends Noah to warn his people "before a painful punishment overtakes them" (v. 1). Noah delivers a threefold message — worship God, be wary of Him, obey me (vv. 2–3) — promising, in return, the forgiveness of "some of your sins" and respite "until a stated term" (v. 4). He then reports the failure of his mission to God: he called "night and day" (v. 5), yet his call only drove them to flee (v. 6), to stop their ears and cover their faces in arrogant refusal (v. 7). He varied his method — aloud, openly, and in secret (vv. 8–9) — urging them to seek forgiveness of an ever-forgiving Lord (v. 10), with worldly fruits promised in exchange: rain, wealth, sons, gardens, and rivers (vv. 11–12). The passage then pivots to rebuke: "What is the matter with you that you look to God for no dignity, though He created you in stages?" (vv. 13–14).
How the present sources read it. All five Arabic witnesses agree that Noah's call is to pure monotheism against an idolatry that worshipped intermediaries. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī (al-Mīzān) frames v. 3 as a compact summons to "the three foundations of religion" — oneness (worship God), the Return that grounds wariness (be wary), and prophethood (obey me). On v. 4 he and al-Ṭabarsī (Majmaʿ al-Bayān) and al-Ṭūsī (al-Tibyān) converge on the doctrine of two terms: a "stated term" granted if they believe, and a nearer term of extirpation hastened if they persist — al-Mīzān reading "min" ("some of your sins") as genuinely partitive (only pre-faith sins are forgiven), and surveying and rejecting the alternative grammatical views (redundant, explanatory, or limit-marking "min").
On the rebuke of v. 13, the sources part in emphasis. al-Ṭabarsī catalogues the spread of received glosses for "you do not look to God for waqār": you do not fear God's greatness (Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid), you do not expect a [good] outcome (Qatāda), or you do not affirm God's existence (Abū Muslim). al-Ṭūsī ties waqār to "the breadth of His decreed power." al-Mīzān advances its own distinctive reading: waqār is God's fixedness and establishment in Lordship, and the idolaters' error was to "despair" of finding a Lord they could reach in worship, delegating governance instead to angels and jinn; vv. 13–20, he argues, form "a decisive proof" that the Creator is himself the Governor, hence the only Lord worthy of worship. On v. 14's "stages" (aṭwār), al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī give the embryological sequence (drop, clot, lump, bones clothed in flesh), while al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī, citing ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm, gloss it morally — "the difference of inclinations, wills, and intentions."
The narrations. al-Baḥrānī (al-Burhān) carries the passage's most striking practical tradition: through al-Kulaynī he relates that the Imams prescribed istighfār (a hundred times nightly, or a structured daily formula of tasbīḥ and istighfār) as the remedy for childlessness, grounding the practice directly in vv. 10–12 — "Seek forgiveness of your Lord… and reinforce you with wealth and sons." al-Ṭabarsī independently preserves the parallel of ʿUmar seeking rain with nothing but istighfār, and of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī answering complaints of drought, poverty, and childlessness with the single counsel "seek God's forgiveness," explicitly drawing on this very verse. al-Qummī offers only terse glosses, noting that Noah's full story is given elsewhere. al-Baḥrānī opens by referring the reader to Sūrat Hūd for the narrative, keeping his focus here on the legal-devotional payload of the verses.