AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them. 13 When We sent to them two but they denied them, so We strengthened them with a third, and they said, "Indeed, we are messengers to you." 14 They said: You are naught but mortals like ourselves, nor has the Beneficent Allah revealed anything; you only lie. 15 They said: 'Our Lord knows that we are Messengers to you. 16 And nothing devolves on us but a clear deliverance (of the message). 17 They said: Surely we augur evil from you; if you do not desist, we will certainly stone you, and there shall certainly afflict you a painful chastisement from us. 18 [The apostles] replied: "Your destiny, good or evil, is [bound up] with yourselves! [Does it seem evil to you] if you are told to take [the truth] to heart? Nay, but you are people who have wasted their own selves!" 19 At that, a man came running from the farthest end of the city, [and] exclaimed: "O my people! Follow these message-bearers! 20 Follow those who ask of you no fee, and who are rightly guided. 21 And why should I not serve Him who originated me, and unto whom you shall be returned? 22 Shall I take beside Him gods when, if the Compassionate should intend me any harm, their intercession will avail me not at all, nor would they save me? 23 Surely, I should then be in clear error. 24 “Indeed I have believed in your Lord, so heed me.” 25 (Eventually they killed him and he was told): “Enter Paradise.” The man exclaimed: “Would that my people knew 26 that my Lord has forgiven me and that He has placed me among the honoured.' 27 ۞ And after him, We did not send down any army from heaven against his people, nor did We intend to send down an army. 28 There was but a single Blast and suddenly they became silent and still. 29 Woe, for those (unbelieving) worshipers! They mocked every Messenger that came to them. 30 See they not how many generations before them we destroyed? Not to them will they return: 31 All of them, gathered together, will certainly be brought before Us. 32