O assembly of jinn and men! did there not come to you apostles from among you, relating to you My communications and warning you of the meeting of this day of yours? They shall say: We bear witness against ourselves; and this world's life deceived them, and they shall bear witness against their own souls that they were unbelievers. 130 This is because thy Lord destroyeth not the townships arbitrarily while their people are unconscious (of the wrong they do). 131 For all there will be degrees (or ranks) according to what they did. And your Lord is not unaware of what they do. 132 And your Lord is the Self-sufficient one, the Lord of mercy; if He pleases, He may take you off, and make whom He pleases successors after you, even as He raised you up from the seed of another people. 133 The promise that was made to you is bound to be fulfilled. It is not in your power to defeat it. 134 Say: "O my [unbelieving] people! Do yet all that may be within your power, [while] I, behold, shall labour [in God's way]; and in time you will come to know to whom the future belongs. Verily, never will evildoers attain to a happy state!" 135 They set aside for Allah a share of what He has created of tilth and cattle saying: 'This is for Allah' so they claim 'and this for our associates (gods)' The share of their associates never reaches Allah, but the share of Allah reaches their associates. How evil they judge! 136 And even so their associate-gods have made fair seeming unto many of the associaters the slaying of their offspring, so that they may cause them to perish and that they may confound unto them their religion. And had Allah so willed, they would not have done it. Wherefore let thou alone them and that which they fabricate. 137 And they say: Such cattle and crops are forbidden. No-one is to eat of them save whom we will - in their make-believe - cattle whose backs are forbidden, cattle over which they mention not the name of Allah. (All that is) a lie against Him. He will repay them for that which they invent. 138 And they say: whatsoever is in the bellies of such cattle is for our males alone and is forbidden unto our wives, and if it be born dead, then they all are partakers thereof. Anon He shall requite them for their attribution; verily He is Wise, Knowing. 139 Lost, indeed, are they who, in their weak-minded ignorance, slay their children and declare as forbidden that which God has provided for them as sustenance, falsely ascribing [such prohibitions] to God: they have gone astray and have not found the right path. 140