The idolators say, 'If God had willed we would not have served; apart from Him, anything, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden, apart from Him, anything.' So did those before them; yet is aught for the Messengers, but to deliver the manifest Message? 35 To every nation We sent a Messenger who told its people, "Worship God and stay away from satan." Some of them were guided by God and others were doomed to go astray. Travel through the land and see how terrible was the end for those who rejected the truth! 36 (O Muhammad), howsoever eager you may be to show them the Right Way, Allah does not bestow His guidance on those whom He lets go astray; and in fact none will be able to help them. 37 They swear their strongest oaths by God that God will never raise the dead to life -- nonetheless, it is a promise truly binding on Him, even though most people do not realize it -- 38 so that He may make clear to them that whereon they were at variance, and that the unbelievers may know that they were truly liars. 39 Indeed, Our word to a thing when We intend it is but that We say to it, "Be," and it is. 40