(Before this,) We sent Moses The Book, and appointed his brother Aaron with him as minister; 35 and We said, "Go you both unto the people who have given the lie to Our messages!" - and thereupon We broke those [sinners] to smithereens. 36 And the people of Nuh, when they rejected the apostles, We drowned them, and made them a sign for men, and We have prepared a painful punishment for the unjust; 37 And the 'Aad and the Thamud and the dwellers of the Rass and many generations in-between. 38 And for each We presented examples [as warnings], and each We destroyed with [total] destruction. 39 And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil: have they, then, never beheld it [with their minds eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection! 40 Hence, whenever they consider thee, [O Muhammad,] they but make thee a target of their mockery, [saying:] "Is this the one whom God has sent as an apostle? 41 “Possibly he would have misled us away from our Gods had we not been firm upon them”; soon they will know, when they see the punishment, who was astray from the path. 42 Have you considered him who takes his own lust for his god? Can you stand a surety for him? 43 Do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are only like the cattle; nay, even worse than the cattle. 44