Those who associate [others with God] say, "If God had so willed we would not have worshipped anything besides Him, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden anything without His sanction." So did those who went before them. The duty of the messengers is only to convey the message clearly. 35 We raised a Messenger in every community (to tell them): "Serve Allah and shun the Evil One." Thereafter Allah guided some of them while others were overtaken by error. Go about the earth, then, and observe what was the end of those who rejected the Messengers, calling them liars. 36 Though thou art ever so eager to guide them, God guides not those whom He leads astray; they have no helpers. 37 They have sworn by God the most earnest oaths God will never raise up him who dies; nay, it is a promise binding upon Him, but most men know not, 38 (They must be raised up), in order that He may manifest to them the truth of that wherein they differ, and that the rejecters of Truth may realise that they had indeed (surrendered to) Falsehood. 39 The only words We say to a thing, when We desire it, is that We say to it 'Be,' and it is. 40