AND HAS the story of Abraham's honoured guests ever come within thy ken? 24 When they entered unto him, saying 'Peace!' he said 'Peace! You are a people unknown to me.' 25 He went quietly to his wife and returned to his guests with a fat, roasted calf. 26 And placed it before them, (saying): "Will you not eat?" 27 [And when he saw that the guests would not eat,] he became apprehensive of them; [but] they said, "Fear not" - and gave him the glad tiding of [the birth of] a son who would be endowed with deep knowledge. 28 Then his wife came up in great grief, and she struck her face and said: An old barren woman! 29 They said: Thus says your Lord: Surely He is the Wise, the Knowing. 30 ۞ Abraham asked, "Messengers, what is your task?" 31 They said, "Indeed, we have been sent to a people of criminals 32 To send down upon them stones of clay, 33 which are marked by your Lord for the punishment of those guilty of excesses." 34 So We brought out from therein the believers. 35 But We found there but one house of those surrendered (to Allah). 36 And We kept a sign remaining in it, for those who fear the painful punishment. 37 And in Musa also was a lesson, when We sent him unto Fir'awn with authority manifest. 38 But he withdrew (confiding) in his might, and said: A wizard or a madman. 39 So We took him and his forces, and threw them into the sea; and his was the blame. 40 There is also evidence of the Truth in the story of Ad whom We struck with a violent wind 41 that left nothing it came upon, but made it as stuff decayed. 42 And in Thamud, when it was said to them, "Enjoy yourselves for a time." 43 But they rebelled against their Lord's decree, and so the thunderbolt overtook them even while they gazed; 44 and they were not able to stand upright, and were not helped. 45 (So had We destroyed) the people of Noah before them: They were surely a sinful people. 46