۞ Permission is given to those who fight because they were wronged. Allah has power to grant them victory: 39 Those who have been driven forth from their abodes without justice, except because they say: our Lord is Allah. And were it not for Allah's repelling of some by means of others, cloisters and churches, synogogues and mosques wherein the name of Allah is mentioned much, would have been pulled down. Surely Allah shall succour whosoever succoureth Him; verily Allah is strong, Mighty. 40 (They are) those who, if We establish them in the land, establish regular prayer and give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong: with Allah rests the end (and decision) of (all) affairs. 41 And if they belie thee, then surely there have belied before them the people of Nuh and the 'Aad and the Thamud. 42 Those of Abraham and Lut; 43 and the inhabitants of Midian also charged their prophets with falsehood. Moses was also rejected. I gave respite to those who denied the truth, but then I seized them. Consider then, how terrible My repudiation of them was. 44 How many towns have We destroyed because their people were steeped in iniquity: so they lie fallen down upon their turrets! How many wells lie deserted; and how many towering palaces lie in ruins! 45 Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth, letting their hearts gain wisdom, and causing their ears to hear? Yet, verily, it is not their eyes that have become blind - but blind have become the hearts that are in their breasts! 46 That is how they ask you to hasten the punishment; but God does not go back on His promise. Verily a day with your Lord is equal by your reckoning to a thousand years. 47 And many a township did I give respite while it was given to wrong-doing. Then (in the end) I seized it (with punishment). And to Me is the (final) return (of all). 48