AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them. 13 We sent them two Messengers whom they rejected. We supported them by sending a third one who told the people, "We are the Messengers (of God) who have been sent to you". 14 The people of the town said: “You are only human beings like ourselves, and the Merciful Lord has revealed nothing. You are simply lying.” 15 They said: our Lord knoweth that we are surely unto you the sent ones. 16 and it is only for us to deliver the Manifest Message.' 17 The people said, "We have ill omens about you. If you will not desist, we shall stone you and make you suffer a painful torment". 18 They said, “Your evil omens are with you! What! You get annoyed for being advised? In fact you are a people who transgress the limits!” 19 Then a man came running from the other side of the city. "O my people," he said, "follow the messengers. 20 Follow those who ask not of you any hire, and who are rightly guided. 21 "Why should I not worship Him who has brought me into being, and to whom you shall all be recalled? 22 Should I take other than Him [false] deities [while], if the Most Merciful intends for me some adversity, their intercession will not avail me at all, nor can they save me? 23 Surely in that case I should be in manifest error. 24 I believe in your Lord, so hear me' 25 It was said to him, “Enter Paradise”; he said, “If only my people knew!” 26 That my Lord hath forgiven me, and hath made me of the honoured ones. 27 ۞ And We sent not down against his People, after him, any hosts from heaven, nor was it needful for Us so to do. 28 It was but one Shout, and lo! they were extinct. 29 Alas for mankind! There never came a Messenger to them but they used to mock at him. 30 Have they not seen how many generations, living before them, had We destroyed and they cannot ever come back to them? 31 And surely, all, everyone of them will be brought before Us. 32