We sent Messengers before you (Muhammad) and gave them wives and offspring. No Messenger was to show miracles without the permission of God. 38 God abrogates or confirms what He pleases; with Him is the source of all commandments. 39 Whether We show you part of what We have promised them or cause you to pass away [before that], your mission is only to give warning; it is for Us to do the reckoning. 40 Have, then, they [who deny the truth] never yet seen how We visit the earth [with Our punishment,] gradually depriving it of all that is best thereon? For, [when] God judges, there is no power that could repel His judgment: and swift in reckoning is He! 41 And of a surety there plotted those before them; but unto Allah belongeth the plotting entirely. He knoweth that which each soul earneth. And anon will the infidels know for whom is the happy ending of the Abode. 42 The Unbelievers say: "No messenger art thou." Say: "Enough for a witness between me and you is Allah, and such as have knowledge of the Book." 43