And ask them (O Muhammad SAW) about the town that was by the sea, when they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath (i.e. Saturday): when their fish came to them openly on the Sabbath day, and did not come to them on the day they had no Sabbath. Thus We made a trial of them for they used to rebel (see the Quran: V. 4:154). 163 And when a community among them said, "Why do you advise [or warn] a people whom Allah is [about] to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?" they [the advisors] said, "To be absolved before your Lord and perhaps they may fear Him." 164 And thereupon, when those [sinners] had forgotten all that they had been told to take to heart, We saved those who had tried to prevent the doing of evil, and overwhelmed those who had been bent on evildoing with dreadful suffering for all their iniquity; 165 And when they had scornfully persisted in what they had been forbidden, We said to them: 'Be apes, despised' 166 And remember when your Lord announced the command that till the Day of Resurrection I will certainly send such oppressors against them, who will inflict them with a dreadful punishment; indeed your Lord is swift in meting out punishment; and indeed He is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 167 We dispersed them through the earth in nations some were righteous, others were not, and tested them with good and evil in order that they return. 168 Then after them a new generation inherited the Book. They took to the things of this base world, and said: "We shall (surely) be forgiven this." Yet they will accept similar things if they came their way again. Had they not been covenanted in the Book to say nothing in the name of God but the truth? And they have read this in it. The abode of the life to come is better for those who fear God. Can they not comprehend? 169 And (as for) those who hold fast by the Book and keep up prayer, surely We do not waste the reward of the right doers. 170 ۞ When We suspended the mountain over them as if it were a canopy, and they thought it was going to fall down on them, We said, "Hold on firmly to what We have given you and remember what is in it, so that you may remain conscious of God." 171