Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
denied Our slave 1 and said: A madman; and he was repulsed.
10. So he cried unto his Lord, saying: I am vanquished, so give help.
11. Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water
12. And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose.
13. And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails,
14. That ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected.
15. And verily We left it as a token; but is there any that remember eth?
16. Then see how (dreadful) was My punishment after My warnings!
17. And in truth We have made the Qur’ân easy to remember;2 but is there any that remembereth?
18. (The tribe of) A‘âd rejected warnings. Then how (dreadful) was My punishment after My warnings.
19. Lo! We let loose on them a raging wind on a day of constant calamity,
20. Sweeping men away as though they were uprooted trunks of palm-trees.
21. Then see how (dreadful) was My punishment after My warnings!
1 To be ’abd Allah, “a. slave of God,” is the proudest rank the Muslim can claim, bondage to Allah implying liberation from all other servitudes. All especially devoted men, all the chosen ones, are called slaves of Allah in the Koran.
2 It is a fact that the Koran is marvellously easy for believers to commit to memory. Thousands of people in the East know the whole Book by heart. The translator, who finds great difficulty in remembering well-known English quotations accurately, can remember page after page of the Koran in Arabic with perfect accuracy.
