THUS, INDEED, have We given in this Qur'an many facets to every kind of lesson [designed] for [the benefit of] mankind. However, man is, above all else, always given to contention: 54 And nothing has prevented the people from believing when guidance came to them and from asking forgiveness of their Lord except that there [must] befall them the [accustomed] precedent of the former peoples or that the punishment should come [directly] before them. 55 And We send not apostles save as bringers of glad tidings and warners; and those who disbelieve dispute with falsehood that they rebut thereby the truth; and they take My signs and that whereof they are warned as a mockery. 56 Who is more wicked than he who has been reminded of the revelations of his Lord, then turns away from them and forgets what his own hands have done? We have cast veils over their hearts lest they understand Our words, and made them hard of hearing. Call them as you may to the right path, they shall never be guided. 57 And thy Lord is the Forgiver, Owner of mercy. Were He to call them to account for that which they have earned; He would have hastened for them torment; but for them is a tryst beside which they cannot find a place to betake themselves to. 58 And those villages! When they became evil We destroyed them and appointed a meeting for their destruction. 59