And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord, punishment would have been an obligation [due immediately], and [if not for] a specified term [decreed]. 129 So you bear with patience what they say, and sing the praises of your Lord before the rising and setting of the sun, and honour Him in the watches of the night, and then at the two ends of day, that you may find acceptance. 130 Do not turn your eyes covetously towards the embellishments of worldly life that We have bestowed upon various kinds of people to test them. But the clean provision bestowed upon you by your Lord is better and more enduring. 131 Enjoin prayer on thy people, and be constant therein. We ask thee not to provide sustenance: We provide it for thee. But the (fruit of) the Hereafter is for righteousness. 132 They say, "Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord?" Have they not been given sufficient proof in previous scriptures? 133 If We had destroyed them with a punishment before this, they would have surely said, "Our Lord, why did you not send to us a messenger so that we might have followed Your commandment before we were humiliated and disgraced?" 134 Say: "Each one (of us) is waiting: wait ye, therefore, and soon shall ye know who it is that is on the straight and even way, and who it is that has received Guidance." 135