After destroying the people of the ancient towns We gave the Book to Moses to be a source of knowledge, a guidance, and mercy for mankind so that perhaps they would take heed. 43 And you, [O Muhammad], were not on the western side [of the mount] when We revealed to Moses the command, and you were not among the witnesses [to that]. 44 We raised generations who lived long. You did not live among the people of Midian, nor did you recite to them Our verses; but We were sending Messengers. 45 Thou wast not upon the side of the Mount when We called; but for a mercy from thy Lord, that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner came before thee, and that haply they may remember. 46 and not say, when evil befalls them on account of that which their hands forwarded: 'Our Lord, why did You not send a Messenger to us so that we might follow Your verses and so that we might be among the believers' 47 Yet when the truth came to them 'from Ourselves, they said, 'Why has he not been given the like' of that Moses was given?' But they, did they not disbelieve also in what Moses was given aforetime? They said, 'A pair of sorceries mutually supporting each other.' They said, 'We disbelieve both.' 48 (Muhammad), tell them, "Bring a Book if you are able to, from God better in its guidance than the Torah and the Quran; I shall follow it". 49 So if they do not accept your challenge, then know that they only follow their desires; and who is more astray than one who follows his desires away from the guidance of Allah? Indeed Allah does not guide the unjust. 50