AND, INDEED, [long before Muhammad] We vouchsafed revelation unto Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to help him to bear his burden; 35 And We command: "Go ye both, to the people who have rejected our Signs:" And those (people) We destroyed with utter destruction. 36 And the people of Nuh! when they belied the apostles We drowned them, and made them a sign unto mankind. And We have gotten ready unto the wrong-doers a torment afflictive. 37 As also 'Ad and Thamud, and the Companions of the Rass, and many a generation between them. 38 And for each We presented examples [as warnings], and each We destroyed with [total] destruction. 39 And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil: have they, then, never beheld it [with their minds eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection! 40 And when they see you, [O Muhammad], they take you not except in ridicule, [saying], "Is this the one whom Allah has sent as a messenger? 41 "He indeed would well-nigh have misled us from our gods, had it not been that we were constant to them!" - Soon will they know, when they see the Penalty, who it is that is most misled in Path! 42 Hast thou observed him who hath taken as his god his own desire! wilt thou be over him a trustee? 43 Do you think most of them can hear or understand? They are like cattle. Indeed, they are even more astray. 44