“He said, ‘I will betake me to a mountain that shall secure me from the water.’ He said, ‘None shall be secure this day from the decree of God, save him on whom He shall have mercy.’ And a wave passed between them, and he was among the drowned.
“And it was said, ‘O Earth! swallow up thy water’; and ‘cease, O Heaven!’ And the water abated, and the decree was fulfilled, and the Ark rested upon al-Jūdī; and it was said, ‘Avaunt! ye tribe of the wicked!’
“And Noah called on his Lord and said, ‘O Lord! verily my son is of my family: and thy promise is true, and thou art the most just of judges.’
“He said, ‘O Noah! verily, he is not of thy family: in this thou actest not aright. Ask not of me that whereof thou knowest nought: I warn thee that thou become not of the ignorant.’
“He said, ‘To thee verily, O my Lord, do I repair lest I ask that of thee wherein I have no knowledge: unless thou forgive me and be merciful to me I shall be one of the lost.’
“It was said to him, ‘O Noah! debark with peace from Us, and with blessings on thee and on peoples from those who are with thee; but as for part, we will suffer them to enjoy themselves, but afterwards they shall suffer a grievous punishment from us to be inflicted.’
“This is a secret history which we reveal to thee. Thou didst not know them, thou nor thy people before this.”
DEPORTMENT. Arabic ʿilmu ʾl-muʿāsharah (علم المعاشرة). Persian nishast u barkhāst. The Traditionists take some pains to explain the precise manner in which their Prophet walked, sat, slept, and rose, but their accounts are not always uniform and consistent. For example, whilst ʿAbbād relates that he saw the Prophet sleeping on his back with one leg over the other, Jābir says the Prophet distinctly forbade it.
Modesty of deportment is enjoined in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xvii. 39]: “Walk not proudly on the earth,” which the commentators say means that the believer is not to toss his head or his arms as he walks. [Sūrah xxv. 64]: “The servants of the Merciful One are those who walk upon the earth lowly, and when the ignorant address them say, ‘Peace!’”