We sent Messengers before you (Muhammad) and gave them wives and offspring. No Messenger was to show miracles without the permission of God. 38 Allah doth blot out or confirm what He pleaseth: with Him is the Mother of the Book. 39 Whether We show thee a part of that We promise them, or We call thee to Us, it is thine only to deliver the Message, and Ours the reckoning. 40 Do they not see how We come to [their] land and shrink its borders? God decides, no one can reverse His decision, and He is swift in reckoning. 41 Surely those who had gone before them had also plotted; but God's is all the planning, for He has knowledge of what each does. The unbelievers will soon learn for whom is the guerdon of Paradise. 42 (Muhammad), the unbelievers say, "You are not a Messenger." Say, "God and those who have the knowledge of the Book are sufficient witness (to my prophethood)." 43