And ask them (O Muhammad SAW) about the town that was by the sea, when they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath (i.e. Saturday): when their fish came to them openly on the Sabbath day, and did not come to them on the day they had no Sabbath. Thus We made a trial of them for they used to rebel (see the Quran: V. 4:154). 163 And when a group among them said, “Why do you preach to a people whom Allah is going to destroy or mete out a severe punishment?” They said, “To have an excuse before your Lord, and that perhaps they may fear.” 164 Therefore when they forgot what they had been reminded of, We saved those who had tried to prevent the doing of evil. And We meted out a severe punishment to the transgressors because they were rebellious. 165 So when they exceeded the limits of what they were prohibited, We said to them: "Be you monkeys, despised and rejected." (It is a severe warning to the mankind that they should not disobey what Allah commands them to do, and be far away from what He prohibits them). 166 Then your Lord declared that, until the Day of Resurrection, He would send others against them to inflict terrible suffering on them. Your Lord is swift in retribution; yet surely He is most forgiving and merciful. 167 And We dispersed them as [separate] communities all over the earth; some of them were righteous, and some of them less than that: and the latter We tried with blessings as well as with afflictions, so that they might mend their ways. 168 Then after them a new generation inherited the Book. They took to the things of this base world, and said: "We shall (surely) be forgiven this." Yet they will accept similar things if they came their way again. Had they not been covenanted in the Book to say nothing in the name of God but the truth? And they have read this in it. The abode of the life to come is better for those who fear God. Can they not comprehend? 169 And as for those who make (men) keep the Scripture, and establish worship - lo! We squander not the wages of reformers. 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