۞ Permission to take up arms is hereby granted to those who are attacked; they have suffered injustice. God has all the power to give victory 39 who were expelled from their habitations without right, except that they say 'Our Lord is God.' Had God not driven back the people, some by the means of others, there had been destroyed cloisters and churches, oratories and mosques, wherein God's Name is much mentioned. Assuredly God will help him who helps Him -- surely God is All-strong, All-mighty 40 [They are] those who, if We established them in the land, would say their prayers regularly and pay the zakat and enjoin good and forbid evil. The final outcome of all affairs rests with God. 41 If they deny thee (Muhammad), even so the folk of Noah, and (the tribes of) A'ad and Thamud, before thee, denied (Our messengers); 42 and the nation of Abraham and the nation of Lot; 43 Midian, and Moses had also called their Prophets liars. I gave respite to the unbelievers, then sized them with torment. How terrible was that torment! 44 How many a city We have destroyed in its evildoing, and now it is fallen down upon its turrets! How many a ruined well, a tall palace! 45 Have these people not travelled through the land to make their hearts understand and let their ears hear; the truth is that it is not the eyes that are blind but the hearts that are in the bosoms that are blinded. 46 And [so, O Muhammad,] they challenge thee to hasten the coming upon them of [God's] chastisement: but God never fails to fulfill His promise - and behold, in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning. 47 How many towns did I respite at first though they were steeped in iniquity, and then I seized them! To Me are all destined to return. 48