Quran — Page 449

and caused his offspring to endure [on earth];

and We left him thus to be remembered among later generations:

“Peace be upon Noah throughout all the worlds!”

Verily, thus do We reward the doers of good –

for he was truly one of our believing servants:

[and so We saved him and those who followed him] and then We caused the others to drown.

AND, BEHOLD, of his persuasion was Abraham, too,

when he turned to his Sustainer with a heart free of evil,

and [thus] spoke to his father and his people: “What is it that you worship?

Do you want [to bow down before] a lie - [before] deities other than God?

What, then, do you think of the Sustainer of all the worlds?”

Then he cast a glance at the stars,

and said, “Verily, I am sick [at heart]!”

and at that they turned their backs on him and went away.

Thereupon he approached their gods stealthily and said, “What! You do not eat [of the offerings placed before you]?

What is amiss with you that you do not speak?”

And then he fell upon them, smiting them with his right hand.

[But] then the others came towards him hur­riedly [and accused him of his deed].

He answered: “Do you worship something that you [yourselves] have carved,

the while it is God who has created you and all your handiwork?”

They exclaimed: “Build a pyre for him, and cast him into the blazing fire!”

But whereas they sought to do evil unto him, We [frustrated their designs, and thus] brought them low?

And [Abraham] said: “Verily, I shall [leave this land and] go wherever my Sustainer will guide me!”

[And he prayed:] “O my Sustainer! Bestow upon me the gift of [a son who shall be] one of the righteous!” –

whereupon We gave him the glad tiding of a boy-child gentle [like himself]?

And [one day,] when [the child] had become old enough to share in his [father’s] endeavours, the latter said: “O my dear son! I have seen in a dream that I should sacrifice thee: consider, then, what would be thy view!” [Ishmael] answered: “O my father! Do as thou art bidden: thou wilt find me, if God so wills, among those who are patient in adversity!”