And ask thou them concerning the town that was close on the sea, when they transgressed in the matter of the sabt, when their fish came unto them openly on their sabt day, while they came not on the day whereon they kept not the sabt. Thus they were wont to transgress. 163 When a Section of them said: "Why do you admonish a people whom God is about to destroy or to punish severely?" They replied: "To clear ourselves of blame before your Lord, and that they may fear God. 164 But when they forgot to remember the warning, We saved those who prohibited evil, but inflicted on the wicked a dreadful punishment -- requital for their disobedience. 165 So when they exceeded the bounds of that which they were prohibited We said unto them: be ye apes despised. 166 Then your Lord declared He would send against them he who would oppress them cruelly till the Day of Resurrection. Swift is the retribution of your Lord, yet surely He is Forgiving, the Most Merciful. 167 And We have broken them (i.e. the Jews) up into various separate groups on the earth, some of them are righteous and some are away from that. And We tried them with good (blessings) and evil (calamities) in order that they might turn (to Allah's Obedience). 168 And they have been succeeded by [new] generations who - [in spite of] having inherited the divine writ - clutch but at the fleeting good of this lower world and say: "We shall be forgiven, the while they are ready, if another such fleeting good should come their way, to clutch at it [and sin again]. Have they not been solemnly pledged through the divine writ not to attribute unto God aught but what is true, and [have they not] read again and again all that is therein? Since the life in the hereafter is the better [of the two] for all who are conscious of God - will you not, then, use your reason? 169 As to those who hold fast by the Book and establish regular prayer,- never shall We suffer the reward of the righteous to perish. 170 ۞ And (remember) when We raised the mountain over them as if it had been a canopy, and they thought that it was going to fall on them. (We said): "Hold firmly to what We have given you [i.e. the Taurat (Torah)], and remember that which is therein (act on its commandments), so that you may fear Allah and obey Him." 171