AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them. 13 When We sent unto them twain, and they denied them both, so We reinforced them with a third, and they said: Lo! we have been sent unto you. 14 They (people of the town) said: "You are only human beings like ourselves, and the Most Beneficent (Allah) has revealed nothing, you are only telling lies." 15 Said [the apostles]: "Our Sustainer knows that we have indeed been sent unto you; 16 And on us is naught but manifest preaching. 17 They (the people of the city) said, “We think you are ominous; indeed, if you do not desist, we shall surely stone you to death, and you will surely face a grievous torture at our hands.” 18 They said: "Your evil omens are with yourselves: (deem ye this an evil omen). If ye are admonished? Nay, but ye are a people transgressing all bounds!" 19 Then, a man came running from the furthest part of the village 'My nation' he said, 'follow the Messengers, 20 Follow those who ask no reward of you, and themselves are rightly guided! 21 "It would not be reasonable in me if I did not serve Him Who created me, and to Whom ye shall (all) be brought back. 22 Should I take to worshipping [other] deities beside Him? [But then,] if the Most Gracious should will that harm befall me, their intercession could not in the least avail me, nor could they save me: 23 (Had I worshipped things besides God, I would have been in manifest error). 24 “Indeed I have believed in your Lord, so heed me.” 25 It was said: Enter the garden. He said: O would that my people had known 26 Of that on account of which my Lord has forgiven me and made me of the honored ones! 27 ۞ And We did not send down upon his people after him any soldiers from the heaven, nor would We have done so. 28 It was naught but a single cry, and lo! they were still. 29 Alas for human beings! They ridicule every messenger that comes to them. 30 Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, which will not return to them? 31 All of them shall (one day) be gathered before Us. 32