AND, INDEED, [long before Muhammad] We vouchsafed revelation unto Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to help him to bear his burden; 35 And We command: "Go ye both, to the people who have rejected our Signs:" And those (people) We destroyed with utter destruction. 36 And Noah's folk, when they denied the messengers, We drowned them and made of them a portent for mankind. We have prepared a painful doom for evil-doers. 37 And the 'Aad and the Thamud and the dwellers of the Rass and many generations in-between. 38 To each of them We gave warnings and each of them We destroyed completely. 39 And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil: have they, then, never beheld it [with their minds eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection! 40 Whenever they see you they only make a mockery of you -- "Is this the one God has sent as His Messenger? 41 He would have mislead us from our gods, if we had not been steadfast to them' But they shall know who is further astray from the Path when they see the punishment. 42 How can you be the guardian of those who have chosen their own desires as their Lord? 43 Or do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are no better than cattle; in fact they are farther astray from the path. 44