Ask them about the town which was by the sea and what befell its people when they broke the Sabbath. On their Sabbath the fish came to them near the surface, but on week-days they never came near them -- thus We tried them because of their disobedience. 163 And when a community among them said: Why preach ye to a folk whom Allah is about to destroy or punish with an awful doom, they said: In order to be free from guilt before your Lord, and that haply they may ward off (evil). 164 And thereupon, when those [sinners] had forgotten all that they had been told to take to heart, We saved those who had tried to prevent the doing of evil, and overwhelmed those who had been bent on evildoing with dreadful suffering for all their iniquity; 165 and then, when they disdainfully persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We said unto them: "Be as apes despicable!" 166 And remember when your Lord announced the command that till the Day of Resurrection I will certainly send such oppressors against them, who will inflict them with a dreadful punishment; indeed your Lord is swift in meting out punishment; and indeed He is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 167 And We divided them throughout the earth into nations. Of them some were righteous, and of them some were otherwise. And We tested them with good [times] and bad that perhaps they would return [to obedience]. 168 Then others succeeded them who inherited the Book and availed themselves of the vanities of this lower world, saying: 'It will be forgiven us' But if similar vanities came their way, they would again take them. Have they not taken the covenant of the Book, which they have studied, to tell nothing of Allah except what is true? Surely, the Everlasting Life is better for the cautious, do you not understand! 169 And (as for) those who hold fast by the Book and keep up prayer, surely We do not waste the reward of the right doers. 170 ۞ And when We shook the Mount above them as it were a covering, and they supposed that it was going to fall upon them (and We said): Hold fast that which We have given you, and remember that which is therein, that ye may ward off (evil). 171