And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord, punishment would have been an obligation [due immediately], and [if not for] a specified term [decreed]. 129 So you bear with patience what they say, and sing the praises of your Lord before the rising and setting of the sun, and honour Him in the watches of the night, and then at the two ends of day, that you may find acceptance. 130 And strain not thine eyes after that which We have given classes of them to enjoy: the splendour of the life of the world, that We might try them therein; and the provision of thy Lord is the best and most lasting. 131 And enjoin prayer on your followers, and steadily adhere to it; We do not ask you for subsistence; We do give you subsistence, and the (good) end is for guarding (against evil). 132 And they Say: wherefore bringeth he not unto us a sign from his Lord? Hath not there came unto them the evidence of that which is in the former Scriptures? 133 And if we had destroyed them with some punishment before it, they would assuredly have said: Our Lord! If only Thou hadst sent unto us a messenger, so that we might have followed Thy revelations before we were (thus) humbled and disgraced! 134 Say, "Each [of us] is waiting; so wait. For you will know who are the companions of the sound path and who is guided." 135