[And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" - for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 130 (They will be made to bear this witness to show that) it is not the way of your Lord to destroy cities unjustly while their people were unaware of the Truth. 131 For all there will be ranks from what they did. Thy Lord is not unaware of what they do. 132 Thy Lord is self-sufficient, full of Mercy: if it were His will, He could destroy you, and in your place appoint whom He will as your successors, even as He raised you up from the posterity of other people. 133 Surely what you have been promised shall come to pass; and you do not have the power to frustrate (Allah). 134 Say: O my people! act according to your ability; I too am acting; so you will soon come to know, for whom (of us) will be the (good) end of the abode; surely the unjust shall not be successful. 135 And they set apart a portion for Allah out of what He has created of tilth and cattle, and say: This is for Allah-- so they assert-- and this for our associates; then what is for their associates, it reaches not to Allah, and whatever is (set apart) for Allah, it reaches to their associates; evil is that which they judge. 136 As such their associates made it attractive to the idolaters to kill their children so that they ruin them and confuse them about their religion. But had Allah willed, they would not have done so. Therefore, leave them to their false inventions. 137 They say: 'These animals and these crops are sacrosanct: none may eat of them save those whom we will' - imposing interdictions of their own contriving. And they declare that it is forbidden to burden the backs of certain cattle, and these are the cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah. All these are false fabrications against Allah, and He will soon requite them for all that they fabricate. 138 They also say: 'What is in the bellies (wombs) of these cattle is reserved for our males but not for our wives' But if it is stillborn, they all partake of it. He will recompense them for their describing. He is Wise, Knowing. 139 Lost, indeed, are they who, in their weak-minded ignorance, slay their children and declare as forbidden that which God has provided for them as sustenance, falsely ascribing [such prohibitions] to God: they have gone astray and have not found the right path. 140