۞ Permission to fight is granted to those who are attacked, because they have been wronged, God indeed has the power to help them, 39 [They are] those who have been evicted from their homes without right - only because they say, "Our Lord is Allah." And were it not that Allah checks the people, some by means of others, there would have been demolished monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which the name of Allah is much mentioned. And Allah will surely support those who support Him. Indeed, Allah is Powerful and Exalted in Might. 40 Those who, should We establish them in the land, will keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate and enjoin good and forbid evil; and Allah's is the end of affairs. 41 And if they deny you, [O Muhammad] - so, before them, did the people of Noah and 'Aad and Thamud deny [their prophets], 42 as did the people of Abraham, and the people of Lot, 43 And the people of Madyan; and Moosa was belied, so I gave the disbelievers respite and then seized them, so how (dreadful) was My punishment! 44 How many populations have We destroyed, which were given to wrong-doing? They tumbled down on their roofs. And how many wells are lying idle and neglected, and castles lofty and well-built? 45 Have they not travelled in the land so that they should have hearts with which to understand, or ears with which to hear? For surely it is not the eyes that are blind, but blind are the hearts which are in the breasts. 46 They ask you to hasten the punishment. Allah shall most certainly not fail His promise; but a Day with your Lord is as a thousand years of your reckoning. 47 And to how many a community that was immersed in evildoing have I given rein for a while! But then I took it to task: for with Me is all journeys' end! 48