Company of jinn and mankind! Did messengers not come from among you to recite My revelations to you, and warn you of the meeting of this Day?" They will say, "We bear witness against ourselves." It was the life of this world that deceived them and so they will bear witness against themselves, that they rejected the truth. 130 Your Lord did not want to destroy the towns, unjustly, without informing their inhabitants (of His guidance). 131 For all are degrees of rank according to their deeds; your Lord is not unaware of anything they do. 132 And thine Lord is Self-Sufficient, the Owner of mercy. If He will, He can take you away, and make those succeed you, after you, whomsoever He will, even as He raised you from the seed of another people. 133 Verily, that [reckoning] which you are promised is bound to come, and you cannot elude it! 134 Say: "O my people! Do whatever ye can: I will do (my part): soon will ye know who it is whose end will be (best) in the Hereafter: certain it is that the wrong-doers will not prosper." 135 They appoint to God, of the tillage and cattle that He multiplied, a portion, saying, 'This is for God' -- so they assert -- 'and this is for our associates.' So what is for their associates reaches not God; and what is for God reaches their associates. Evil is their judgment! 136 And likewise, their belief in beings or powers that are supposed to have a share in God's divinity makes [even] the slaying of their children seem goodly to many of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God, thus bringing them to ruin and confusing them in their faith. Yet, unless God had so willed, they would not be doing all this: stand, therefore, aloof from them and all their false imagery! 137 They also say, "These animals and these crops are forbidden. None may eat them except those we permit." So they claim! There are some animals they exempt from labour and some over which they do not pronounce God's name, thus committing a sin against Him. He will requite them for the falsehoods they invent. 138 They have also said, "Whatever exists in the wombs of these animals belongs to our people alone and it is not lawful for our women." However, if they are born dead, then everyone will have a share. God will give them what they deserve for (their unjust laws). God is All-merciful and All-knowing. 139 Losers are they who slay their children in folly, without knowledge, and have forbidden what God has provided them, forging against God; they have gone astray, and are not right-guided. 140