قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّىٓ أَعُوذُ بِكَ أَنْ أَسْـَٔلَكَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ وَإِلَّا تَغْفِرْ لِى وَتَرْحَمْنِىٓ أَكُن مِّنَ ٱلْخَٰسِرِينَ
qāla rabbi innī aʿūdhu bika an asʾalaka mā laysa lī bihī ʿilm, wa illā taghfir lī wa tarḥamnī akun mina'l-khāsirīn
"He said: 'My Lord! I take refuge with You from asking of You what I have no knowledge of. If You do not forgive me and have mercy on me, I shall be among the losers.'"
Noah does not meet the warning of the forty-sixth verse with a defence. He does not say "I did not know"; he does not say "I was right".
| # | Expression | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | aʿūdhu bika an asʾalaka mā laysa lī bihī ʿilm | Takes up the very words of the warning |
| 2 | wa illā taghfir lī wa tarḥamnī akun mina'l-khāsirīn | Takes the outcome upon himself |
The only difference is the pronoun: laka → lī. Noah, that is, repeats what was said to him, turning it into the first person. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the answer shows, by its very wording, that the warning has been understood.
The root ع-و-ذ: to take refuge, to withdraw to a place for protection. The root was treated in al-Falaq and al-Nās.
And what is taken refuge from must be recorded: Noah takes refuge not from an enemy, a punishment or a danger, but from a request he himself might make.
I record this as an observation and compare it with the uses of aʿūdhu across this series: in Sūrat al-Falaq and Sūrat al-Nās what refuge is taken from is an evil coming from outside. Here it is a behaviour coming from within.
And the order of the two verbs is worth recording: taghfir (forgiveness) and tarḥam (mercy). And the same two names occurred in the forty-first verse: inna rabbī la-ghafūrun raḥīm — as Noah was boarding the ark.
| Verse | Expression | About whom |
|---|---|---|
| 41 | inna rabbī la-ghafūrun raḥīm | Said about those boarding the ark |
| 47 | wa illā taghfir lī wa tarḥamnī | Asked for himself |
The same two roots, six verses apart, in two different directions. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
And in Nūḥ the order of the same structure within that sūra was tabulated: forgiveness is first hoped for on another's behalf (71/7), then the asking of it is taught to others (71/10), and at the very end the man asks it for himself (71/28). Hūd 11/41-47 repeats the same order over a shorter distance. I rely on that treatment and record this as an overlap.