[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 For all there will be ranks from what they did. Thy Lord is not unaware of what they do. 132 Your Lord is Self-sufficient and Merciful. Had He wanted, He could have destroyed you and replaced you by other people, just as He had created you from the offspring of others. 133 Surely, that which you are promised will verily come to pass, and you cannot escape (from the Punishment of Allah). 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 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 To many of the pagans, the murder of their children was made to seem attractive by the idols. This led them (the pagans) to confusion in their religion and to face their own destruction. Had God wanted, they would not have murdered their children. Keep away from them and their evil gains. 137 They say: 'These animals and these crops are sacrosanct: none may eat of them save those whom we will' - imposing interdictions of their own contriving. And they declare that it is forbidden to burden the backs of certain cattle, and these are the cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah. All these are false fabrications against Allah, and He will soon requite them for all that they fabricate. 138 And they say: That which is in the bellies of such cattle is reserved for our males and is forbidden to our wives; but if it be born dead, then they (all) may be partakers thereof. He will reward them for their attribution (of such ordinances unto Him). Lo, He is Wise, Aware. 139 Indeed ruined are those who slay their children out of senseless ignorance and forbid the sustenance which Allah has bestowed upon them, in order to fabricate lies against Allah; they have undoubtedly gone astray and not attained the path. 140