Remember when Moses said to his people, "O my people! Remember God's favour to you, He has raised up prophets among you, made you kings, and granted you [favours] such as He has not granted to anyone else in the world. 20 O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you and do not turn back [from fighting in Allah's cause] and [thus] become losers. 21 They said: O Musa! surely there is a strong race in it, and we will on no account enter it until they go out from it, so if they go out from it, then surely we will enter. 22 Two God-fearing men on whom God had bestowed favors told them, "Proceed through the gates and when you enter the city you will be victorious. Have trust in God if you are true believers". 23 They said: "O Moses, we shall never, never enter so long as they are there. Go you and your Lord to fight them; we stay here." 24 He said: My Lord! Surely I have no control (upon any) but my own self and my brother; therefore make a separation between us and the nation of transgressors. 25 Said He, 'Then it shall be forbidden them for forty years, while they are wandering in the earth; so grieve not for the people of the ungodly.' 26