And ask them about that town which stood by the sea: how its people would profane the Sabbath whenever their fish came to them, breaking the water's surface, on a day on which they ought to have kept Sabbath - because they would not come to them on other than Sabbath-days! Thus did We try them by means of their [own] iniquitous doings. 163 And recall when a party of them said: 'Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or punish severely?' They said: 'We admonish them in order to be able to offer an excuse before Your Lord, and in the hope that they will guard against disobedience.' 164 And when they forgot that whereof they had been reminded, We rescued those who forbade wrong, and visited those who did wrong with dreadful punishment because they were evil-livers. 165 So when they exceeded the bounds of that which they were prohibited We said unto them: be ye apes despised. 166 And lo! Thy Sustainer made it known that most certainly He would rouse against them, unto Resurrection Day, people who would afflict them with cruel suffering: verily, thy Sustainer is swift in retribution - yet, verily, He is [also] much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace. 167 And We have sundered them in the earth as (separate) nations. Some of them are righteous, and some far from that. And We have tried them with good things and evil things that haply they might return. 168 Then others succeeded them who inherited the Book and availed themselves of the vanities of this lower world, saying: 'It will be forgiven us' But if similar vanities came their way, they would again take them. Have they not taken the covenant of the Book, which they have studied, to tell nothing of Allah except what is true? Surely, the Everlasting Life is better for the cautious, do you not understand! 169 As for those who adhere to the Book and are firm in devotion, We shall certainly not let the wages of those who are upright to go waste. 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