AND HOW MANY a community has turned with disdain from the commandment of its Sustainer and His apostles! - whereupon We called them all to account with an accounting severe, and caused them to suffer with a suffering unnameable: 8 So it tasted the mischief of its action, and the end of its affair was loss. 9 God has prepared severe retribution for them. People of understanding and believers, have fear of God. God has certainly sent you a reminder, 10 [He has sent] an apostle who conveys unto you God's clear messages, so that He might take those who have attained to faith and do righteous deeds out of the depths of darkness into the light. And whoever believes in God and does what is right and just, him will He admit into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide beyond the count of time: indeed, a most goodly provision will God have granted him! 11 It is God who created seven heavens, and of earth their like, between them the Command descending, that you may know that God is powerful over everything and that God encompasses everything in knowledge. 12