۞ Permission to fight is granted to those who are attacked, because they have been wronged, God indeed has the power to help them, 39 those who have been driven from their homelands against all right for no other reason than their saying: "Our Sustainer is God!" For, if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another, all] monasteries and churches and synagogues and mosques - in [all of] which God's name is abundantly extolled - would surely have been destroyed [ere now]. And God will most certainly succour him who succours His cause: for, verily, God is most powerful, almighty, 40 who, if We establish them in the land, perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and bid to honour, and forbid dishonour; and unto God belongs the issue of all affairs. 41 If they accuse you of falsehood, (remember that) the people of Noah, 'Ad and Thamud had accused (their apostles) before, 42 And the people of Ibrahim (Abraham) and the people of Lout (Lot), 43 Midian, and Moses had also called their Prophets liars. I gave respite to the unbelievers, then sized them with torment. How terrible was that torment! 44 And many a township did We destroy, for they were oppressors – so they now lie flat on their roofs, and many a well lying useless and many a palace in ruins. 45 Have they not travelled in the land, and have they hearts wherewith to feel and ears wherewith to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind. 46 And [so, O Muhammad,] they challenge thee to hasten the coming upon them of [God's] chastisement: but God never fails to fulfill His promise - and behold, in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning. 47 And how many a town to which I gave respite while it was unjust, then I overtook it, and to Me is the return. 48