And when your Lord proclaimed: "If you give thanks, I will increase you, but, if you are unthankful My punishment is indeed stern.' 7 Moses said: "Were you to disbelieve - you and all those who live on earth - Allah is still Self-Sufficient, Innately Praiseworthy." 8 Has not the story reached you, (O people!), of those who (went) before you? - of the people of Noah, and 'Ad, and Thamud? - And of those who (came) after them? None knows them but Allah. To them came messengers with Clear (Signs); but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said: "We do deny (the mission) on which ye have been sent, and we are really in suspicious (disquieting) doubt as to that to which ye invite us." 9 ۞ Their Messengers said: "Can there be any doubt about Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? He invites you that He may forgive you your sins and grant you respite till an appointed term." They replied: "You are only a human being like ourselves. You seek to prevent us from serving those whom our forefathers have been serving all along. If that is so, produce a clear authority for it." 10 Their Messengers told them: "Indeed we are only human beings like yourselves, but Allah bestows His favour on those of His servants whom He wills. It does not lie in our power to produce any authority except by the leave of Allah. It is in Allah that the believers should put their trust. 11 And how could we not place our trust in God, seeing that it is He who has shown us the path which we are to follow? "Hence, we shall certainly bear with patience whatever hurt you may do us: for, all who have trust [in His existence] must place their trust in God [alone]!" 12