And We have already sent messengers before you and assigned to them wives and descendants. And it was not for a messenger to come with a sign except by permission of Allah. For every term is a decree. 38 God annuls or confirms whatever He wills [of His earlier messages] - for with Him is the source of all revelation. 39 Whether We show you part of what We have promised them or cause you to pass away [before that], your mission is only to give warning; it is for Us to do the reckoning. 40 See they not how we aim to the land, reducing it of its outlying parts? (When) Allah doometh there is none that can postpone His doom, and He is swift at reckoning. 41 Those who lived before them also devised many a plot, but the master plot rests with Allah. He knows what everyone does. The deniers of the truth will soon come to know whose end is good. 42 They who disbelieve say: Thou art no messenger (of Allah). Say: Allah, and whosoever hath knowledge of the Scripture, is sufficient witness between me and you. 43