We sent messengers before you [Prophet] to many communities and afflicted their people with suffering and hardship, so that they might humble themselves. 42 If only, when Our disaster came on them, they had been humble! But their hearts were hardened and the devil made all that they used to do seem fair unto them! 43 Then, when they had forgotten all that they had been told to take to heart, We threw open to them the gates of all [good] things until - even as they were rejoicing in what they had been granted - We suddenly took them to task: and lo! they were broken in spirit; 44 So the roots of the people who were unjust were cut off; and all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. 45 Say: "Think ye, if Allah took away your hearing and your sight, and sealed up your hearts, who - a god other than Allah - could restore them to you?" See how We explain the signs by various (symbols); yet they turn aside. 46 Say: 'If the chastisement of Allah were to overtake you unawares or openly shall any except the wrong-doing people be destroyed?' 47 And We send not the messengers except as bringers of good tidings and warners. So whoever believes and reforms - there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. 48 But those who cry lies to Our signs, them the chastisement shall visit, for that they were ungodly. 49 (Muhammad), tell them, "I do not claim to have all the treasures of God in my hands, nor to know the unseen, nor do I claim to be an angel. I follow only what is revealed to me (from God)." Say to them, "Are the blind and the seeing equal?" Why then do you not think? 50