[And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" - for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 130 This is because your Lord would not destroy the (populations of) towns for their wrong-doing (i.e. associating others in worship along with Allah) while their people were unaware (so the Messengers were sent). 131 For all there will be degrees in accordance with that which they did, and thy Lord is not unaware of that which they do. 132 Your Lord is Self-sufficient and Merciful. Had He wanted, He could have destroyed you and replaced you by other people, just as He had created you from the offspring of others. 133 That which you are promised is sure to come. You shall not frustrate Me. 134 Say (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him), “O my people! Keep on with your works* in your positions, I am doing mine; soon you will come to know for whom is the abode of the Hereafter; undoubtedly the unjust are never successful.” (* This is said as a challenge) 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 thus their associates have made fair seeming to most of the polytheists the killing of their children, that they may cause them to perish and obscure for them their religion; and if Allah had pleased, they would not have done it, therefore leave them and that which they forge. 137 And they say according to their fancy: such cattle and tilth are taboo; none shall eat thereof save whom we allow. And there are cattle whose backs are forbidden, and cattle over which they pronounce not the name of Allah: a fabrication against Him. Anon He shall requite them for that which they were wont to fabricate. 138 And they say: "What is in the bellies of such and such cattle (milk or foetus) is for our males alone, and forbidden to our females (girls and women), but if it is born dead, then all have shares therein." He will punish them for their attribution (of such false orders to Allah). Verily, He is All-Wise, All-Knower. (Tafsir At-Tabari, Vol. 8, Page 49). 139 Lost are those who, without knowledge, have foolishly slain their own children and made unlawful that which Allah has provided them, fabricating lies about Allah. They have gone astray and are not guided. 140