And We gave Moses the Book, after that We had destroyed the former generations, to be examples and a guidance and a mercy, that haply so they might remember. 43 You were not present on the western side of the Mount when We gave Our Command to Moses: nor were you among the witnesses, 44 But We brought forth generations, and their lives dragged on for them. And thou wast not a dweller in Midian, reciting unto them Our revelations, but We kept sending (messengers to men). 45 And neither wert thou present on the slope of Mount Sinai when We called out [to Moses]: but [thou, too, art sent] as an act of thy Sustainer's grace, to warn people to whom no warner has come before thee, so that they might bethink themselves [of Us]; 46 Otherwise, if some disaster befell them because of what their own hands have sent forward they would say, "Our Lord! Why did you not send a Noble Messenger towards us, so we may have followed Your signs and accepted faith?" 47 But when the truth came to them from Us, they said: "Why is he not given the like of what was given to Moses?" Did they not disbelieve before in what was given to Moses? They said: "Both are imposters one like the other," and added: "We do not believe in either." 48 Say: Then bring some (other) book from Allah which is a better guide than both of them, (that) I may follow it, if you are truthful. 49 And since they cannot respond to this thy challenge, know that they are following only their own likes and dislikes: and who could be more astray than he who follows [but] his own likes and dislikes without any guidance from God? Verily, God does not grace with His guidance people who are given to evildoing! 50