The idolaters say: 'Had Allah willed, neither we nor our fathers would have worshipped anything other than Him, nor would we have forbidden anything without Him', as such did those before them. Yet what should Messengers do but give a clear deliverance? 35 And indeed, within every community have We raised up an apostle [entrusted with this message]: "Worship God, and shun the powers of evil!" And among those [past generations] were people whom God graced with His guidance, just as there was among them [many a one] who inevitably fell prey to grievous error: go, then, about the earth and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 36 Even if you are eager to guide them, God does not surely guide those who have gone astray: They will have no one to help them. 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 this is so that He may make clear to them what they have differed about and so that those who are bent on denying the truth may realize that they were lying. 39 And Our word unto a thing, when We intend it, is only that We say unto it: Be! and it is. 40