Enquire of them about the town situated by the sea where, when they did not keep the Sabbath, the fish came up to the surface of the water for them; but on days other than the Sabbath the fish did not come. We tried them in this way, for they were disobedient. 163 And when a community among them said: "Why do you preach to a people whom Allah is about to destroy or to punish with a severe torment?" (The preachers) said: "In order to be free from guilt before your Lord (Allah), and perhaps they may fear Allah." 164 So, when they forgot that they were reminded of; We delivered those who were forbidding wickedness, and We seized the evildoers with evil chastisement for their ungodliness. 165 And when they turned in disdain from that forbidding We said to them, 'Be you apes, miserably slinking!' 166 And remember when your Lord announced the command that till the Day of Resurrection I will certainly send such oppressors against them, who will inflict them with a dreadful punishment; indeed your Lord is swift in meting out punishment; and indeed He is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 167 We divided them into nations on the earth; some are righteous and others are not. We tested them with well-being and hardship so that they might return (to the right path). 168 And they have been succeeded by [new] generations who - [in spite of] having inherited the divine writ - clutch but at the fleeting good of this lower world and say: "We shall be forgiven, the while they are ready, if another such fleeting good should come their way, to clutch at it [and sin again]. Have they not been solemnly pledged through the divine writ not to attribute unto God aught but what is true, and [have they not] read again and again all that is therein? Since the life in the hereafter is the better [of the two] for all who are conscious of God - will you not, then, use your reason? 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 ۞ When We suspended the mountain over them as though it were a shadow and they feared that it was falling down on them (We said): 'Take forcefully that which We have given you and remember what it contains, in order that you keep from evil' 171