And assuredly We have destroyed the cities round about you. and We have variously propounded our signs, that haply they might return. 27 So why did they – the ones whom they had chosen as Gods as a means of attaining Allah’s proximity – not help them? In fact the disbelievers lost them; and this is just their slander and fabrication. 28 We turned a party of jinn towards you to listen to the Quran. When they attended a Quranic recitation, they said to each other, "Be silent," and, when it was over, they turned back to their people, in warning, 29 They said: "O our people! Behold, we have been listening to a revelation bestowed from on high after [that of] Moses, confirming the truth of whatever there still remains [of the Torah]: it guides towards the truth, and onto a straight way. 30 O our people! respond to Allah's summoner and believe in Him. He will forgive you some of your sins and guard you from a painful doom. 31 But he who does not respond to God's calls can never elude [Him] on earth, nor can he have any protector against Him. Such people have clearly gone far astray." 32 Do they not realise that God who created the heavens and the earth, and did not tire creating them, is able to bring the dead to life? And why not? He has the power over everything. 33 And so, on the Day when those who were bent on denying the truth will be brought within sight of the fire [and will be asked,] "Is not this the truth?" - they will answer, "Yea, by Our Sustainer!" [And] He will say: "Taste, then, this suffering as an outcome of your denial of the truth!" 34 REMAIN, then, [O believer,] patient in adversity, just as all of the apostles, endowed with firmness of heart, bore themselves with patience. And do not ask for a speedy doom of those [who still deny the truth]: on the Day when they see [the fulfillment of] what they were promised, [it will seem to them] as though they had dwelt [on earth] no longer than one hour of [an earthly] day! [This is Our] message. Will, then, any be [really] destroyed save iniquitous folk?" 35