AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them. 13 When We sent unto them twain, and they denied them both, so We reinforced them with a third, and they said: Lo! we have been sent unto you. 14 They said: You are naught but mortals like ourselves, nor has the Beneficent Allah revealed anything; you only lie. 15 They said: 'Our Lord knows that we are Messengers to you. 16 and it is only for us to deliver the Manifest Message.' 17 The (people) said: "for us, we augur an evil omen from you: if ye desist not, we will certainly stone you. And a grievous punishment indeed will be inflicted on you by us." 18 They said: your evil augury be with you. Call ye it an ill-luck because ye are admonished! Aye! ye are a people extravagant. 19 And there came from the farthest end of the city a man, running. He said, "O my people, follow the messengers. 20 follow those who ask no wage of you and are rightly guided. 21 And why should I not worship He who created me and to whom you will be returned? 22 Should I take to worshipping [other] deities beside Him? [But then,] if the Most Gracious should will that harm befall me, their intercession could not in the least avail me, nor could they save me: 23 Surely in that case I should indeed be in evident error. 24 "For me, I have faith in the Lord of you (all): listen, then, to me!" 25 It was said: "Enter thou the Garden." He said: "Ah me! Would that my People knew (what I know)!- 26 how my Sustainer has forgiven me [the sins of my past,] and has placed me among the honoured ones!" 27 ۞ After him, We did not send down any hosts from the heaven; We stood in no need to send down any host. 28 It was naught but a single cry, and lo! they were still. 29 Alas for mankind! There never came a Messenger to them but they used to mock at him. 30 Do they not see how many of the generations We have destroyed before them? Verily, they will not return to them. 31 And surely all, every one of them, shall be brought before Us. 32