And present to them an example: the people of the city, when the messengers came to it - 13 When We sent unto them twain, and they denied them both, so We reinforced them with a third, and they said: Lo! we have been sent unto you. 14 They said: You are naught but mortals like ourselves, nor has the Beneficent Allah revealed anything; you only lie. 15 They said: "Our Lord doth know that we have been sent on a mission to you: 16 Our duty is to convey the message clearly." 17 They said: Surely we augur evil from you; if you do not desist, we will certainly stone you, and there shall certainly afflict you a painful chastisement from us. 18 (The messengers) said: "The augury is within your own selves. Do you (consider it a bad omen) that you should be warned? You are a people guilty of excess." 19 And there came from the farthest end of the city a man, running. He said, "O my people, follow the messengers. 20 Follow those who ask no reward of you, and themselves are rightly guided! 21 "It would not be reasonable in me if I did not serve Him Who created me, and to Whom ye shall (all) be brought back. 22 What, shall I take, other than Him, gods whose intercession, if the Merciful desires to afflict me, cannot help me at all, and they will never save me? 23 Surely, I should then be in clear error. 24 Lo! I have believed in your Lord, so hear me! 25 We said to him, "Enter paradise," and he exclaimed: "Would that my people knew 26 With what (munificence) my Lord hath pardoned me and made me of the honoured ones! 27 ۞ We sent not down against his people after him a host from heaven, nor do We ever send. 28 It was only a single blast which made them extinct. 29 How regretful for the servants. There did not come to them any messenger except that they used to ridicule him. 30 Are they not aware of how many a generation We have destroyed before their time, [and] that those [that have perished] will never return to them, 31 and [that] all of them, all together, will [in the end] before Us be arraigned? 32