(Muhammad), ask them about the (people of the) towns on the seashore. They had transgressed by catching fish on the Sabbath. Each Sabbath the fish came openly within their reach but not so on other days. Thus, We were testing them because of their evil deeds. 163 And when a certain nation of them said, 'Why do you admonish a people God is about to destroy or to chastise with a terrible chastisement?' They said, 'As an excuse to your Lord; and haply they will be godfearing.' 164 So when they neglected what they had been reminded of, We delivered those who forbade evil and We overtook those who were unjust with an evil chastisement because they transgressed. 165 And when they persisted in pursuing that which had been forbidden We said: 'Become despised apes.' 166 And your Lord declared He would send men against them who would inflict dreadful suffering on them till the Day of Doom, for your Lord is swift in retribution, though He is certainly forgiving and kind. 167 And We dispersed them as [separate] communities all over the earth; some of them were righteous, and some of them less than that: and the latter We tried with blessings as well as with afflictions, so that they might mend their ways. 168 And after them in their place, came those unworthy successors who inherited the Books – they accept the goods of this world (as bribes) and say, “We shall soon be forgiven”; and if similar goods come to them again, they would accept it; was not the covenant taken from them in the Book, that they must not relate anything to Allah except the truth, and they have studied it? And indeed the abode of the Hereafter is better for the pious; so do you not have sense? 169 As for those who hold fast to the Book and are steadfast in prayer, We do not waste the wage of the righteous. 170 ۞ And when We shook the mountain over them as if it were a covering overhead, and they thought that it was going to fall down upon them: Take hold of what We have given you with firmness, and be mindful of what is in it, so that you may guard (against evil). 171