O ye race of genii and mankind; came there not apostles unto you from amongst you recounting unto you My signs and warning you of your meeting of this Day? They will say: we bear witness against ourselves. The life of the world hath deluded them, and they shall bear witness against themselves that verily they had been infidels. 130 This is because your Lord would not destroy the (populations of) towns for their wrong-doing (i.e. associating others in worship along with Allah) while their people were unaware (so the Messengers were sent). 131 People's deeds are of different degrees and your Lord is not unaware of what people do. 132 Your Lord is Rich and the Owner of Mercy. He can destroy you if He will and replace you with whom He pleases, just as He raised you from the offspring of other nations. 133 Surely, that which you are promised will verily come to pass, and you cannot escape (from the Punishment of Allah). 134 Tell them: "O my people, go on acting on your part, I am acting on mine. You will soon know whose is the guerdon of life to come." The wicked will not succeed. 135 They set aside a share of the left-overs of their farming produce and cattle saying, "This is for God and that is for the idols." God does not receive the share of the idols but the share of God is given totally to the idols. How terrible is their decision! 136 And thus their associates have made fair seeming to most of the polytheists the killing of their children, that they may cause them to perish and obscure for them their religion; and if Allah had pleased, they would not have done it, therefore leave them and that which they forge. 137 And they say: "Such-and-such cattle and fruits of the field are sacred; none may eat thereof save those whom we will [to do so]" - so they [falsely] claim; and [they declare that] it is forbidden to burden the backs of certain kinds of cattle; and there are cattle over which they do not pronounce God's name - falsely attributing [the origin of these customs] to Him. [But] He will requite them for all their false imagery. 138 And they say: "What is in the bellies of such and such cattle (milk or foetus) is for our males alone, and forbidden to our females (girls and women), but if it is born dead, then all have shares therein." He will punish them for their attribution (of such false orders to Allah). Verily, He is All-Wise, All-Knower. (Tafsir At-Tabari, Vol. 8, Page 49). 139 Losers indeed are they who kill their children foolishly and without knowledge and declare as forbidden what God has provided for them as sustenance -- a fabrication against God: they have gone astray and have not chosen to be rightly guided. 140