The pagans had said, "Had God wanted we would not have worshipped anything other than Him, nor would our fathers. We would not have forbidden anything without (a command from) Him." The same thing was said by the people who lived before them. Are the Messengers expected to do more than just preach? 35 And certainly We raised in every nation an apostle saying: Serve Allah and shun the Shaitan. So there were some of them whom Allah guided and there were others against whom error was due; therefore travel in the land, then see what was the end of the rejecters. 36 Even if you are eager to guide them, God does not surely guide those who have gone astray: They will have no one to help them. 37 They swear their strongest oaths by God that God will never raise the dead to life -- nonetheless, it is a promise truly binding on Him, even though most people do not realize it -- 38 That He may explain unto them that wherein they differ, and that those who disbelieved may know that they were liars. 39 Our word for a thing when We intend it, is only that We say to it, Be, and it is. 40