[And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" - for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 130 That is because your Lord would not destroy the cities for wrongdoing while their people were unaware. 131 And for all are degrees from what they have done. And your Lord is not unaware of what they do. 132 Thy Lord is self-sufficient, full of Mercy: if it were His will, He could destroy you, and in your place appoint whom He will as your successors, even as He raised you up from the posterity of other people. 133 Verily, that [reckoning] which you are promised is bound to come, and you cannot elude it! 134 Say: 'O my people, act according to your station; I am acting. And assuredly you will know who shall possess the Abode Ultimate. Surely the evildoers will not prosper.' 135 And they assign to Allah a share of the tilth and cattle which He has created, and they say: "This is for Allah according to their pretending, and this is for our (Allah's so-called) partners." But the share of their (Allah's so-called) "partners" reaches not Allah, while the share of Allah reaches their (Allah's so-called) "partners"! Evil is the way they judge! 136 Thus have their (so-called) partners (of Allah) made the killing of their children to seem fair unto many of the idolaters, that they may ruin them and make their faith obscure for them. Had Allah willed (it otherwise), they had not done so. So leave them alone with their devices. 137 And they say that such and such cattle and crops are taboo, and none should eat of them except those whom - so they say - We wish; further, there are cattle forbidden to yoke or burden, and cattle on which, (at slaughter), the name of Allah is not pronounced; - inventions against Allah's name: soon will He requite them for their inventions. 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 Losers indeed are they who kill their children foolishly and without knowledge and declare as forbidden what God has provided for them as sustenance -- a fabrication against God: they have gone astray and have not chosen to be rightly guided. 140