And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, 'If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.' " 7 Moses said: "Were you to disbelieve - you and all those who live on earth - Allah is still Self-Sufficient, Innately Praiseworthy." 8 Has not the news of those before you, the people of Noah and 'Ad and Thamud, and those who came after them, come to you? None knows (about) them except God. Their apostles came to them with clear proofs, but they tried to silence them and said: "We do not believe in what you have been sent with, and we are in doubt of what you call us to, about which we are in disquiet.' 9 ۞ Their Messengers said, 'Is there any doubt regarding God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who calls you so that He may forgive you your sins, and defer you to a term stated?' They said, 'You are nothing but mortals, like us; you desire to bar us from that our fathers served; then bring us a manifest authority.' 10 Their Noble Messengers said to them, “We are indeed human beings like you, but Allah bestows favour upon whomever He wills, among His bondmen*; it is not our task to bring any proof to you except by the command of Allah; and only upon Allah must the Muslims rely.” (* Therefore Prophets and other men are not equal in status.) 11 And how could we not place our trust in God, seeing that it is He who has shown us the path which we are to follow? "Hence, we shall certainly bear with patience whatever hurt you may do us: for, all who have trust [in His existence] must place their trust in God [alone]!" 12