Tell My bondmen to speak that which is kindlier. Lo! the devil soweth discord among them. Lo! the devil is for man an open foe. 53 Your Lord knows you very well. He will have mercy on you if He will, or punish you if He will. We have not sent you to be their guardian. 54 We have given preference to some Prophets over others and We gave the psalms to David. 55 Say: Call on those whom you assert besides Him, so they shall not control the removal of distress from you nor (its) transference. 56 Those whom they call upon are themselves seeking the means of access to their Lord, each trying to be nearer to Him. They crave for His Mercy and dread His chastisement. Surely your Lord's punishment is to be feared. 57 And there is not a town but We will destroy it before the day of resurrection or chastise it with a severe chastisement; this is written in the Divine ordinance. 58 And We refrain from sending the signs, only because the men of former generations treated them as false: We sent the she-camel to the Thamud to open their eyes, but they treated her wrongfully: We only send the Signs by way of terror (and warning from evil). 59 And when We said to thee, 'Surely thy Lord encompasses men,' and We made the vision that We showed thee and the tree cursed in the Koran to be only a trial for men; and We frighten them, but it only increases them in great insolence. 60