The idolators say, 'If God had willed we would not have served; apart from Him, anything, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden, apart from Him, anything.' So did those before them; yet is aught for the Messengers, but to deliver the manifest Message? 35 And certainly We raised in every nation an apostle saying: Serve Allah and shun the Shaitan. So there were some of them whom Allah guided and there were others against whom error was due; therefore travel in the land, then see what was the end of the rejecters. 36 If thou art solicitous for their guidance, then verily Allah guideth not whomsoever He sendeth astray, and for them there are no helpers. 37 They have sworn by God the most earnest oaths God will never raise up him who dies; nay, it is a promise binding upon Him, but most men know not, 38 so that He may make clear to them that whereon they were at variance, and that the unbelievers may know that they were truly liars. 39 The only words We say to a thing, when We desire it, is that We say to it 'Be,' and it is. 40