We have sent forth other Messengers before you and given them wives and descendants. Yet none of them could bring a sign except by the permission of Allah. Every term has its Book. 38 For every event God has ordained His decree. God establishes or effaces whatever He wants and with Him is the original of the Book. 39 Whether We show you part of that We promise them, or We call you to Us, it is only for you to deliver the Message, and Ours is the accounting. 40 Have, then, they [who deny the truth] never yet seen how We visit the earth [with Our punishment,] gradually depriving it of all that is best thereon? For, [when] God judges, there is no power that could repel His judgment: and swift in reckoning is He! 41 And of a surety there plotted those before them; but unto Allah belongeth the plotting entirely. He knoweth that which each soul earneth. And anon will the infidels know for whom is the happy ending of the Abode. 42 The Unbelievers say: "No messenger art thou." Say: "Enough for a witness between me and you is Allah, and such as have knowledge of the Book." 43