Those who associate [others with God] say, "If God had so willed we would not have worshipped anything besides Him, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden anything without His sanction." So did those who went before them. The duty of the messengers is only to convey the message clearly. 35 We raised a Messenger in every community (to tell them): "Serve Allah and shun the Evil One." Thereafter Allah guided some of them while others were overtaken by error. Go about the earth, then, and observe what was the end of those who rejected the Messengers, calling them liars. 36 [As for those who are bent on denying the truth - ] though thou be ever so eager to show them the right way, [know that,] verily, God does not bestow His guidance upon any whom He judges to have gone astray; and such shall have none to succour them [on Resurrection Day]. 37 They swear emphatically in the name of God that God will not raise the dead. On the contrary, it is a promise incumbent on Him, though most men do not understand, 38 (Through the resurrection) God wants to make a clear distinction between right and wrong and make the unbelievers know that they were liars. 39 Whenever We will anything to be, We but say unto it Our word "Be" - and it is. 40