[And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" - for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 130 This is because thy Lord destroyeth not the townships arbitrarily while their people are unconscious (of the wrong they do). 131 People's deeds are of different degrees and your Lord is not unaware of what people do. 132 Thy Lord is the Absolute, the Lord of Mercy. If He will, He can remove you and can cause what He will to follow after you, even as He raised you from the seed of other folk. 133 Indeed, what you are promised is coming, and you will not cause failure [to Allah]. 134 Say: "O my people! Do whatever ye can: I will do (my part): soon will ye know who it is whose end will be (best) in the Hereafter: certain it is that the wrong-doers will not prosper." 135 They set aside for God a share in what He has produced, such as crops and livestock, and they say, "This is for God," so they claim!, and "this is for our associate-gods?" Their associate-gods' share does not reach God, whereas God's share reaches their associate-gods. How ill they judge! 136 And even so their associate-gods have made fair seeming unto many of the associaters the slaying of their offspring, so that they may cause them to perish and that they may confound unto them their religion. And had Allah so willed, they would not have done it. Wherefore let thou alone them and that which they fabricate. 137 And they say: "Such-and-such cattle and fruits of the field are sacred; none may eat thereof save those whom we will [to do so]" - so they [falsely] claim; and [they declare that] it is forbidden to burden the backs of certain kinds of cattle; and there are cattle over which they do not pronounce God's name - falsely attributing [the origin of these customs] to Him. [But] He will requite them for all their false imagery. 138 They have also said, "Whatever exists in the wombs of these animals belongs to our people alone and it is not lawful for our women." However, if they are born dead, then everyone will have a share. God will give them what they deserve for (their unjust laws). God is All-merciful and All-knowing. 139 Lost, indeed, are they who, in their weak-minded ignorance, slay their children and declare as forbidden that which God has provided for them as sustenance, falsely ascribing [such prohibitions] to God: they have gone astray and have not found the right path. 140