And ask them about that town which stood by the sea: how its people would profane the Sabbath whenever their fish came to them, breaking the water's surface, on a day on which they ought to have kept Sabbath - because they would not come to them on other than Sabbath-days! Thus did We try them by means of their [own] iniquitous doings. 163 And when a community among them said, "Why do you advise [or warn] a people whom Allah is [about] to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?" they [the advisors] said, "To be absolved before your Lord and perhaps they may fear Him." 164 When they (the unjust people) forgot what was preached to them, We saved the preachers from evil and afflicted the unjust for their evil deeds, with a dreadful torment. 165 and then, when they disdainfully persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We said unto them: "Be as apes despicable!" 166 And when Thy Lord proclaimed He would send forth against them, unto the Day of Resurrection, those who should visit them with evil chastisement. Surely thy Lord is swift in retribution; surely He is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. 167 And We dispersed them as [separate] communities all over the earth; some of them were righteous, and some of them less than that: and the latter We tried with blessings as well as with afflictions, so that they might mend their ways. 168 Then others succeeded them who inherited the Book and availed themselves of the vanities of this lower world, saying: 'It will be forgiven us' But if similar vanities came their way, they would again take them. Have they not taken the covenant of the Book, which they have studied, to tell nothing of Allah except what is true? Surely, the Everlasting Life is better for the cautious, do you not understand! 169 And those who hold fast to the Book, and perform the prayer -- surely We leave not to waste the wage of those who set aright. 170 ۞ And when We raised the Mount (Sinai) above them as if it were a canopy, and they thought that it would fall upon them; “Accept firmly what We have given you, and remember what is in it, so that you may become pious.” 171