Ask them about the town which was by the sea and what befell its people when they broke the Sabbath. On their Sabbath the fish came to them near the surface, but on week-days they never came near them -- thus We tried them because of their disobedience. 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 Then, when they forgot what they had been exhorted, We delivered those who forbade evil and afflicted the wrong-doers with a grievous chastisement because of their evildoing. 165 So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed! 166 Then your Lord declared He would send against them he who would oppress them cruelly till the Day of Resurrection. Swift is the retribution of your Lord, yet surely He is Forgiving, the Most Merciful. 167 And We cut them up on the earth into parties, (some) of them being righteous and (others) of them falling short of that, and We tried them with blessings and misfortunes that they might turn. 168 Then there came after them an evil posterity who inherited the Book, taking only the frail good of this low life and saying: It will be forgiven us. And if the like good came to them, they would take it (too). Was not a promise taken from them in the Book that they would not speak anything about Allah but the truth, and they have read what is in it; and the abode of the hereafter is better for those who guard (against evil). Do you not then understand? 169 As to those who hold fast by the Book and establish regular prayer,- never shall We suffer the reward of the righteous to perish. 170 ۞ And when We shook the mountain over them as if it were a covering overhead, and they thought that it was going to fall down upon them: Take hold of what We have given you with firmness, and be mindful of what is in it, so that you may guard (against evil). 171