Say to My servants that they should (only) say those things that are best: for Satan doth sow dissensions among them: For Satan is to man an avowed enemy. 53 Your Lord knows better than you (people). He will have mercy on you or will punish you as He wills. We have not sent you to watch over them. Your Lord knows best about those in the heavens and the earth. 54 Your Lord knows very well all who are in the heavens and the earth. We have preferred some Prophets above others, and to David We gave the Psalms. 55 Say: "Call those whom you imagine to be gods besides Him; yet they have no power to relieve you of any distress or to avert it." 56 Those whom they invoke are themselves seeking a way of approach to their Lord, vying with each other to be near Him. They hope for His mercy and fear His punishment. Surely, the punishment of your Lord is to be feared: 57 No city is there, but We shall destroy it before the Day of Resurrection, or We shall chastise it with a terrible chastisement; that is in the Book inscribed. 58 Nothing prevented Us from sending the signs but that the ancients belied them. To Thamood, We brought the shecamel as a visible (sign), yet they wronged her. We do not send signs except to frighten. 59 And [remember, O Muhammad], when We told you, "Indeed, your Lord has encompassed the people." And We did not make the sight which We showed you except as a trial for the people, as was the accursed tree [mentioned] in the Qur'an. And We threaten them, but it increases them not except in great transgression. 60