۞ PERMISSION [to fight] is given to those against whom war is being wrongfully waged and verily, God has indeed the power to succour them: 39 those who have been driven from their homelands against all right for no other reason than their saying: "Our Sustainer is God!" For, if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another, all] monasteries and churches and synagogues and mosques - in [all of] which God's name is abundantly extolled - would surely have been destroyed [ere now]. And God will most certainly succour him who succours His cause: for, verily, God is most powerful, almighty, 40 [They are] those who, if We established them in the land, would say their prayers regularly and pay the zakat and enjoin good and forbid evil. The final outcome of all affairs rests with God. 41 If they treat thy (mission) as false, so did the peoples before them (with their prophets),- the People of Noah, and 'Ad and Thamud; 42 And the people of Ibrahim and the people of Lut, 43 and the inhabitants of Midian, to Moses they also belied. I respited the unbelievers, then I seized them, and how was My disapproval! 44 How many a town We destroyed which was given to wrongdoing, so that its roofs fell down, and how many a well is deserted and how many a lofty castle is in ruins. 45 Have they not marched forth in the land, so that there might become unto them hearts to understand with or ears to hear with? Verily it is not the sights that are blinded but blinded are the hearts that are in the breasts. 46 And they will bid thee hasten on the Doom, and Allah faileth not His promise, but lo! a Day with Allah is as a thousand years of what ye reckon. 47 And how many a city did I give reins to, while it wronged itself, then took hold of it! and unto Me is the return. 48