۞ Permission to fight is granted to those who are attacked, because they have been wronged, God indeed has the power to help them, 39 they are those who have been driven out of their homes unjustly, only because they said, "Our Lord is God." If God did not repel the aggression of some people by means of others, cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques, wherein the name of God is much invoked, would surely be destroyed. God will surely help him who helps His cause -- God is indeed powerful and mighty. 40 The people who, if We give them control in the land, would keep the prayer established and pay charity and enjoin virtue and forbid from evil; and for Allah only is the result of all works. 41 And if they belie thee, then surely there have belied before them the people of Nuh and the 'Aad and the Thamud. 42 and so too did the people of Abraham and the people of Lot; 43 and the dwellers of Madyan; and [so, too,] Moses was given the lie [by Pharaoh]. And [in every ease] I gave rein, for a while, to the deniers of the truth: but then I took them to task - and how awesome was My denial [of them]! 44 How many were the unjust dwellers of the towns that We destroyed. From their trellises to their lofty mansions, all were toppled and their wells were abandoned. 45 So have they not travelled in the land, to have hearts with which to understand and ears to hear with? So it is not the eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts in the bosoms, that are blind. 46 They ask you to hasten the punishment. Allah shall most certainly not fail His promise; but a Day with your Lord is as a thousand years of your reckoning. 47 And how many a village have I respited in its evil doing! Then I seized it. To Me is the return. 48