We sent Messengers before you (Muhammad) and gave them wives and offspring. No Messenger was to show miracles without the permission of God. 38 Allah eliminates what He wills or confirms, and with Him is the Mother of the Book. 39 Whether We show thee a part of that We promise them, or We call thee to Us, it is thine only to deliver the Message, and Ours the reckoning. 40 See they not that We gradually reduce the land (in their control) from its outlying borders? (Where) Allah commands, there is none to put back His Command: and He is swift in calling to account. 41 Surely those who had gone before them had also plotted; but God's is all the planning, for He has knowledge of what each does. The unbelievers will soon learn for whom is the guerdon of Paradise. 42 (Muhammad), the unbelievers say, "You are not a Messenger." Say, "God and those who have the knowledge of the Book are sufficient witness (to my prophethood)." 43