And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord, punishment would have been an obligation [due immediately], and [if not for] a specified term [decreed]. 129 Therefor (O Muhammad), bear with what they say, and celebrate the praise of thy Lord ere the rising of the sun and ere the going down thereof. And glorify Him some hours of the night and at the two ends of the day, that thou mayst find acceptance. 130 And strain not your eyes in longing for the things We have given for enjoyment to various groups of them (polytheists and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah), the splendour of the life of this world that We may test them thereby. But the provision (good reward in the Hereafter) of your Lord is better and more lasting. 131 And bid thy people to pray, and persevere therein. [But remember:] We do not ask thee to provide sustenance [for Us]: it is We who provide sustenance for thee. And the future belongs to the God-conscious. 132 NOW THEY [who are blind to the truth] are wont to say: "If [Muhammad] would but produce for us a miracle from his Sustainer! [But] has there not come unto them a clear evidence [of the truth of this divine writ] in what is [to be found] in the earlier scriptures? 133 If We had destroyed them with a punishment before this, they would have surely said, "Our Lord, why did you not send to us a messenger so that we might have followed Your commandment before we were humiliated and disgraced?" 134 Say: Each is awaiting; so await ye! Ye will come to know who are the owners of the path of equity, and who is right. 135