AND, INDEED, [long before Muhammad] We vouchsafed revelation unto Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to help him to bear his burden; 35 Then We said: go ye twain unto a people who have belied Our signs. Then We annihilated them an utter annihilation. 36 And the people of Noah,- when they rejected the messengers, We drowned them, and We made them as a Sign for mankind; and We have prepared for (all) wrong-doers a grievous Penalty;- 37 And the 'Aad and the Thamud and the dwellers of the Rass and many generations in-between. 38 And We illustrated examples to each one of them; and ruining them, annihilated them all. 39 And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil: have they, then, never beheld it [with their minds eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection! 40 When they see thee, they treat thee no otherwise than in mockery: "Is this the one whom Allah has sent as a messenger?" 41 He would have led us far away from our gods if we had not been staunch to them. They will know, when they behold the doom, who is more astray as to the road. 42 Seest thou such a one as taketh for his god his own passion (or impulse)? Couldst thou be a disposer of affairs for him? 43 Or deemest thou that most of them hear or understand? They are but like unto the cattle; nay, they are even farther astray from the path. 44