(Muhammad), tell My servants to say what is best. Satan sows dissension among them; he is the sworn enemy of human beings. 53 Your Lord is the Best Knower of you; if He willeth He will have mercy upon you, or if He willeth He will torment you. And We have not sent thee over them as a trustee. 54 And thine Lord is the Best Knower of those who are in the heavens and the earth. And assuredly We have preferred some prophets over some others: and We vouchsafed unto Daud a Scripture. 55 Say, "Invoke those you have claimed [as gods] besides Him, for they do not possess the [ability for] removal of adversity from you or [for its] transfer [to someone else]." 56 Those [saintly beings] whom they invoke are themselves striving to obtain their Sustainer's favour - [even] those among them who are closest [to Him] - hoping for His grace and dreading His chastisement: for, verily, thy Sustainer's chastisement is something to beware of! 57 There is not a population but We shall destroy it before the Day of Judgment or punish it with a dreadful Penalty: that is written in the (eternal) Record. 58 Nothing hindered Us from sending Our Signs except that the people of olden times rejected them as lies. We publicly sent the she-camel to the Thamud to open their eyes but they wronged her. We never send Our Signs except to cause people to fear. 59 And when We proclaimed to you, “Indeed all mankind is within the control of your Lord”; and We did not create the spectacle* which We showed you except to try mankind, and the Tree** which is cursed in the Qur’an; and We warn them – so nothing increases for them except extreme rebellion. (* The Ascent of the Holy Prophet to the heavens and beyond, which the disbelievers denied as just a dream. ** The Zakkum tree which will grow in hell and be the food for its inhabitants.) 60