And assuredly We vouchsafed unto Musa the Book and We placed with him his brother Harun as a minister. 35 (Then) We said: 'Go to the nation who have belied Our signs' And We utterly destroyed them. 36 The nation of Noah, We drowned them when they belied their Messenger, and made of them a sign to the nation. For the harmdoers We have prepared a painful punishment 37 to 'Ad, and Thamud, and the people of al-Rass, and as We did for the many a generation between them. 38 and unto each of them did We proffer lessons and each of them did We destroy with utter destruction. 39 And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil: have they, then, never beheld it [with their minds eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection! 40 When they see you they take you only in jest: "Is this the one whom God has sent as messenger? 41 He almost would have misled us from our gods had we not been steadfast in [worship of] them." But they are going to know, when they see the punishment, who is farthest astray in [his] way. 42 Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire? Then would you be responsible for him? 43 Or do you think that most of them do hear or understand? They are nothing but as cattle; nay, they are straying farther off from the path. 44