Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
— the people of Noah, ‘Ād and Thamūd,
and those who were after them,
whom no one knows [well] except Allah?
Their apostles brought them manifest proofs,
but they did not respond to them,1
and said,
‘We disbelieve in what you have been sent with.
Indeed we have grave doubts concerning
that to which you invite us.’
10 Their apostles said, ‘Is there any doubt about Allah,
the originator of the heavens and the earth?!
He calls you to forgive you a part of your sins,
and grants you respite until a specified time.’2
They said, ‘You are nothing but humans like us
who desire to bar us
from what our fathers used to worship.
So bring us a manifest authority.’
11 Their apostles said to them,
‘Indeed we are just human beings like yourselves;
but Allah favours
whomever of His servants that He wishes.
We may not bring you an authority
except by Allah’s leave,
and in Allah let all the faithful put their trust.
12 And why should we not put our trust in Allah,
seeing that He has guided us in our ways?
Surely, we will put up patiently
1 Literally, ‘they put their hands into their mouths,’ an idiomatic expression that has been interpreted variously. See Ṭabrisī and Ṭabarī.
2 Or ‘for a specified term.’
