We have sent forth other Messengers before you and given them wives and descendants. Yet none of them could bring a sign except by the permission of Allah. Every term has its Book. 38 Allah effaces whatever He wills and retains whatever He wills. With Him is the Mother of the Book. 39 And whether We show you part of what We promise them or take you in death, upon you is only the [duty of] notification, and upon Us is the account. 40 Do they not see that We are bringing destruction upon the land by curtailing it of its sides? And Allah pronounces a doom-- there is no repeller of His decree, and He is swift to take account. 41 And those before them did indeed make plans, but all planning is Allah's; He knows what every soul earns, and the unbelievers shall come to know for whom is the (better) issue of the abode. 42 The unbelievers claim that you have not been sent by Allah. Tell them: "Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you; and so also do those who know the Scriptures." 43