O you assembly of jinns and mankind! "Did not there come to you Messengers from amongst you, reciting unto you My Verses and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours?" They will say: "We bear witness against ourselves." It was the life of this world that deceived them. And they will bear witness against themselves that they were disbelievers. 130 This is because your Lord would not destroy the (populations of) towns for their wrong-doing (i.e. associating others in worship along with Allah) while their people were unaware (so the Messengers were sent). 131 For all there will be ranks from what they did. Thy Lord is not unaware of what they do. 132 Your Lord is Self-Sufficient, full of compassion. If He wills, He can put you away and cause whomever He wills to succeed you just as He has produced you from the seed of another people. 133 The promise that was made to you is bound to be fulfilled. It is not in your power to defeat it. 134 Say (O Muhammad!): 'O people! Work in your place; and I too am at work. Soon you will know in whose favour the ultimate decision will be. Surely the wrong-doers will not prosper.' 135 They assign to Allah a portion out of the produce and cattle that He has created, saying out of their fancy: 'This is for Allah' - so they deem -'and this is for the associates (of Allah) whom we have contrived.' Then, the portion assigned to the beings whom they have set up as associates (of Allah) does not reach Allah, but the portion assigned to Allah reaches the beings they set up as associates (of Allah)! Indeed evil is what they decide! 136 And so to many of the Mushrikun (polytheists - see V. 2:105) their (Allah's so-called) "partners" have made fair-seeming the killing of their children, in order to lead them to their own destruction and cause confusion in their religion. And if Allah had willed they would not have done so. So leave them alone with their fabrications. 137 And they say: These are cattle and tilth prohibited, none shall eat them except such as We please-- so they assert-- and cattle whose backs are forbidden, and cattle on which they would not mention Allah's name-- forging a lie against Him; He shall requite them for what they forged. 138 And they say: What is in the wombs of these cattle is specially for our males, and forbidden to our wives, and if it be stillborn, then they are all partners in it; He will reward them for their attributing (falsehood to Allah); surely He is Wise, Knowing. 139 They will surely perish who kill their offspring in ignorance foolhardily, and forbid the food that God has given them by fabricating lies against God. Misguided are they surely, and will never come to guidance. 140