[And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" - for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 130 This is because thy Lord destroyeth not the townships arbitrarily while their people are unconscious (of the wrong they do). 131 For all there will be degrees (or ranks) according to what they did. And your Lord is not unaware of what they do. 132 Thy Lord is self-sufficient, full of Mercy: if it were His will, He could destroy you, and in your place appoint whom He will as your successors, even as He raised you up from the posterity of other people. 133 The promise that was made to you is bound to be fulfilled. It is not in your power to defeat it. 134 Say: 'O my people, act according to your station; I am acting. And assuredly you will know who shall possess the Abode Ultimate. Surely the evildoers will not prosper.' 135 And the polytheists assign to Allah from that which He created of crops and livestock a share and say, "This is for Allah," by their claim, "and this is for our partners [associated with Him]." But what is for their "partners" does not reach Allah, while what is for Allah - this reaches their "partners." Evil is that which they rule. 136 And so to many of the Mushrikun (polytheists - see V. 2:105) their (Allah's so-called) "partners" have made fair-seeming the killing of their children, in order to lead them to their own destruction and cause confusion in their religion. And if Allah had willed they would not have done so. So leave them alone with their fabrications. 137 And they say according to their fancy: such cattle and tilth are taboo; none shall eat thereof save whom we allow. And there are cattle whose backs are forbidden, and cattle over which they pronounce not the name of Allah: a fabrication against Him. Anon He shall requite them for that which they were wont to fabricate. 138 And they say: whatsoever is in the bellies of such cattle is for our males alone and is forbidden unto our wives, and if it be born dead, then they all are partakers thereof. Anon He shall requite them for their attribution; verily He is Wise, Knowing. 139 Losers indeed are they who kill their children foolishly and without knowledge and declare as forbidden what God has provided for them as sustenance -- a fabrication against God: they have gone astray and have not chosen to be rightly guided. 140