J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

CHAP. XI. AL KORAN. 181
I ask not of you for this my preaching, any recompense : my recompense
do I expect from liiin only, who hath created me. Will ye not therefore
understand ? O my people, ask pardon of your Lord ; and be turned unto
him : he will send the heaven to pour forth rain plentifully upon you,' and
he will increase your strength by giving unto joxx farther strength -.^ there-
fore turn not aside to commit evil. They answered, Hud, thou hast
brought us no Tpvoof of what thou sayest; therefore we will not leave our
gods for thy saying, neither do we believe thee. We say no other than that
some of our gods have aiflicted thee with evil.' He replied. Verily I call
God to witness, and do ye also bear witness, that I am clear of that which
ye associate with God, besides him. Do ye all therefore Joj'/i to devise a \)\ot
against me, and tarry not ; for I put my confidence in God, my Lord and
your Lord. There is no beast, but he holdeth it by its forelock :"" verily
my Lord proceedeth in the right way. But if ye turn back, I have already
declared unto you that with which I was sent unto you ; and my Lord
shall substitute another nation in your stead ; and ye shall not hurt him at
all : for my Lord is guardian over all things. And when our sentence came
to he put in execution, we delivered Hud, and those who had believed with
him," through our mercy ; and we delivered them from a grievous punish-
ment. And this tribe of Ad wittingly rejected the signs of their Lord, and
were disobedient unto his messengers, and they followed the command of
every rebellious perverse person. Wherefore they were followed in this
world by a curse, and they shall be followed by the same on the day of resur-
rection. Did not Ad disbelieve in their Lord? Was it not said, Away with
Ad, the people of Hud 1 And unto the tribe o/*Thamud ive sent their bro-
ther Saleh.° He said unto them, O my people, worship God ; ye have no
God besides him. It is he who hath produced you out of the earth, and
hath given you an habitation therein. Ask pardon of him therefore, and be
turned unto him ; for my Lord is near,* and ready to answer. They au-
swered, O Saleh, thou wast a person on whom we j^laced our hopes befure
this.P Dost thou forbid us to worship that which our fathers worshipped?
But we are certainly in doubt concerning the religion to which thou
dost invite us, as justly to be suspected. Saleh said, O my people, tell me;
if I have received an evident declaration from my Lord, and he hath
' For the Adites were grievously distressed by a drought for three years.*
^ By giving you children ; the wombs of their wives being also rendered barren,
during the time of the drought, as well as their lands.^
' Or madness : having deprived thee of thy reason for the indignities thou hast
offered them.
™ That is, he exerciseth an absolute power over it. A creature held in this man-
ner being supposed to be reduced to the lowest subjection.
° Who were in number four thousand.*
" See chap. 7, p. 123.
* " Repent! Turn unto him! He is near unto you, and hears you." — Savnry.
P Designing to have made thee our prince, because of the singular prudence and
other good qualities which we observed in thee ; but thy dissenting from us in point
of religious worship has frustrated those hopes.^
* See the notes to chap. 7, p. 123. • Al Beidawi.