AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them. 13 When We sent two of them they called them liars; so We sent a third to strengthen them. "We have been sent to you," they said. 14 They said: Ye are but mortals like unto us. The Beneficent hath naught revealed. Ye do but lie! 15 Said [the apostles]: "Our Sustainer knows that we have indeed been sent unto you; 16 “And our duty is nothing but to plainly convey (the message).” 17 They answered: 'We predict evil of you. If you do not desist, we will stone you and a painful punishment from us will befall you' 18 They (Messengers) said: "Your evil omens be with you! (Do you call it "evil omen") because you are admonished? Nay, but you are a people Musrifun (transgressing all bounds by committing all kinds of great sins, and by disobeying Allah). 19 And from the remote part of the city there came a man running, he said: O my people! follow the apostles; 20 Follow those who ask not of you any hire, and who are rightly guided. 21 Why should I not worship Him who brought me into being, to whom you will be brought back in the end? 22 Shall I take (other) gods in place of Him when, if the Beneficent should wish me any harm, their intercession will avail me naught, nor can they save? 23 (Had I worshipped things besides God, I would have been in manifest error). 24 Verily I believe now in your Lord; so hearken unto me. 25 (Eventually they killed him and he was told): “Enter Paradise.” The man exclaimed: “Would that my people knew 26 how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honoured ones!" 27 ۞ And after him, We did not send down any army from heaven against his people, nor did We intend to send down an army. 28 It was but one Shout, and lo! they were extinct. 29 Alas for the servants! there comes not to them an apostle but they mock at him. 30 See they not how many generations before them we destroyed? Not to them will they return: 31 and [that] all of them, all together, will [in the end] before Us be arraigned? 32