The idolators say, 'If God had willed we would not have served; apart from Him, anything, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden, apart from Him, anything.' So did those before them; yet is aught for the Messengers, but to deliver the manifest Message? 35 And indeed, within every community have We raised up an apostle [entrusted with this message]: "Worship God, and shun the powers of evil!" And among those [past generations] were people whom God graced with His guidance, just as there was among them [many a one] who inevitably fell prey to grievous error: go, then, about the earth and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 36 (O Muhammad), howsoever eager you may be to show them the Right Way, Allah does not bestow His guidance on those whom He lets go astray; and in fact none will be able to help them. 37 They strongly swear by God that God will not bring the dead to life. God's promise (of the Resurrection) will certainly come true but many people do not know. 38 So that He might make manifest to them that about which they differ, and that those who disbelieve might know that they were liars. 39 For to anything which We have willed, We but say the word, "Be", and it is. 40