Tell My servants that they should always say what is best. Satan stirs up discord among them. Surely, Satan is an outright enemy to man. 53 Your Lord knows you best; He will have mercy on you if He pleases, or He will chastise you if He pleases; and We have not sent you as being in charge of them. 54 And your Lord best knows those who are in the heavens and the earth; and certainly We have made some of the prophets to excel others, and to Dawood We gave a scripture. 55 Call upon those you claim to be deities besides God and you will know that they have no power to remove affliction from you or to bring about any change [that you may desire]. 56 Those whom they call upon themselves seek access to their Lord, striving which of them shall be the nearest; and they hope for His mercy and fear His torment; verily the torment of thy Lord is ever to be guarded against. 57 There is not a township but We shall destroy it ere the Day of Resurrection, or punish it with dire punishment. That is set forth in the Book (of Our decrees). 58 And naught hindered Us from sending the signs except that the ancients belied them. And We vouchsafed unto Thamud a she-camel as an illumination, but they did her wrong. And We send not the signs save to frighten. 59 And when We proclaimed to you, “Indeed all mankind is within the control of your Lord”; and We did not create the spectacle* which We showed you except to try mankind, and the Tree** which is cursed in the Qur’an; and We warn them – so nothing increases for them except extreme rebellion. (* The Ascent of the Holy Prophet to the heavens and beyond, which the disbelievers denied as just a dream. ** The Zakkum tree which will grow in hell and be the food for its inhabitants.) 60