And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, 'If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.' " 7 And Moses said, 'If you are thankless, you and whoso is on earth, all together, yet assuredly God is All-sufficient, All-laudable.' 8 Have you (believers) ever heard the news about those who lived before you, like the people of Noah, Ad, Thamud, and those who lived after them? No one knows about them except God. Messengers were sent to them with miracles, but they put their hands to their mouths and said, "We do not believe in whatever you preach and we are also doubtful and uncertain about that to which you invite us." 9 ۞ Their messengers said: "Is there a doubt about Allah, The Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He Who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed!" They said: "Ah! ye are no more than human, like ourselves! Ye wish to turn us away from the (gods) our fathers used to worship: then bring us some clear authority." 10 Their Messengers told them: "Indeed we are only human beings like yourselves, but Allah bestows His favour on those of His servants whom He wills. It does not lie in our power to produce any authority except by the leave of Allah. It is in Allah that the believers should put their trust. 11 And how could we not place our trust in God, seeing that it is He who has shown us the path which we are to follow? "Hence, we shall certainly bear with patience whatever hurt you may do us: for, all who have trust [in His existence] must place their trust in God [alone]!" 12