The idolators say, 'If God had willed we would not have served; apart from Him, anything, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden, apart from Him, anything.' So did those before them; yet is aught for the Messengers, but to deliver the manifest Message? 35 And verily We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming): Serve Allah and shun false gods. Then some of them (there were) whom Allah guided, and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just hold. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers! 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 As it is, they swear by God with their most solemn oaths, "Never will God raise from the dead anyone who has died!" Yea indeed! [This very thing has God promised] by a promise which He has willed upon Himself; but most people know it not. 38 In order that He may make clear to them the matter in which they differed, and the disbelievers may realise 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