Those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity say: "Were Allah to will so, neither we nor our forefathers would have worshipped any other than Him, nor would we have prohibited anything without His command." Their predecessors proffered similar excuses. Do the Messengers have any other duty but to plainly convey the Message? 35 And certainly We raised in every nation an apostle saying: Serve Allah and shun the Shaitan. So there were some of them whom Allah guided and there were others against whom error was due; therefore travel in the land, then see what was the end of the rejecters. 36 (O Muhammad), howsoever eager you may be to show them the Right Way, Allah does not bestow His guidance on those whom He lets go astray; and in fact none will be able to help them. 37 They swear their strongest oaths by God that God will never raise the dead to life -- nonetheless, it is a promise truly binding on Him, even though most people do not realize it -- 38 this is so that He may make clear to them what they have differed about and so that those who are bent on denying the truth may realize that they were lying. 39 Indeed, Our word to a thing when We intend it is but that We say to it, "Be," and it is. 40