The idolaters say: 'Had Allah willed, neither we nor our fathers would have worshipped anything other than Him, nor would we have forbidden anything without Him', as such did those before them. Yet what should Messengers do but give a clear deliverance? 35 And indeed, within every community have We raised up an apostle [entrusted with this message]: "Worship God, and shun the powers of evil!" And among those [past generations] were people whom God graced with His guidance, just as there was among them [many a one] who inevitably fell prey to grievous error: go, then, about the earth and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 36 [Even] if you should strive for their guidance, [O Muhammad], indeed, Allah does not guide those He sends astray, and they will have no helpers. 37 They swear emphatically in the name of God that God will not raise the dead. On the contrary, it is a promise incumbent on Him, though most men do not understand, 38 In order that He may make manifest to them the truth of that wherein they differ, and that those who disbelieved (in Resurrection, and in the Oneness of Allah) may know that they were liars. 39 Verily! Our Word unto a thing when We intend it, is only that We say unto it: "Be!" and it is. 40