And [remember the time] when your Sustainer made [this promise] known: 'If you are grateful [to Me,] I shall most certainly give you more and more; but if you are ungrateful, verily, My chastisement will be severe indeed!"' 7 And Moses said, 'If you are thankless, you and whoso is on earth, all together, yet assuredly God is All-sufficient, All-laudable.' 8 Have you not heard what befell the nations that have gone before you? The nations of Noah, Aad, and Thamood, and those who came after? None knows them but Allah. Their Messengers came to them with clear signs, but they thrust their hands into their mouths and said: 'Without doubt we disbelieve the Message you have been sent with. That which you call us to is disquieting' 9 ۞ Their Messengers said, 'Is there any doubt regarding God, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who calls you so that He may forgive you your sins, and defer you to a term stated?' They said, 'You are nothing but mortals, like us; you desire to bar us from that our fathers served; then bring us a manifest authority.' 10 Their Noble Messengers said to them, “We are indeed human beings like you, but Allah bestows favour upon whomever He wills, among His bondmen*; it is not our task to bring any proof to you except by the command of Allah; and only upon Allah must the Muslims rely.” (* Therefore Prophets and other men are not equal in status.) 11 And what reason have we that we should not rely on Allah? And He has indeed guided us in our ways; and certainly we would bear with patience your persecution of us; and on Allah should the reliant rely. 12