The idolators say, 'If God had willed we would not have served; apart from Him, anything, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden, apart from Him, anything.' So did those before them; yet is aught for the Messengers, but to deliver the manifest Message? 35 Indeed, We sent forth among every nation a Messenger saying: 'Serve you God, and eschew idols.' Then some of them God guided, and some were justly disposed to error. So journey in the land, and behold how was the end of them that cried lies. 36 (O Muhammad), howsoever eager you may be to show them the Right Way, Allah does not bestow His guidance on those whom He lets go astray; and in fact none will be able to help them. 37 They swear emphatically in the name of God that God will not raise the dead. On the contrary, it is a promise incumbent on Him, though most men do not understand, 38 For (they fear) He might make what they differed about plain to them, and that the infidels may realise that they were liars. 39 Whenever We will anything to be, We but say unto it Our word "Be" - and it is. 40