(Muhammad), ask them about the (people of the) towns on the seashore. They had transgressed by catching fish on the Sabbath. Each Sabbath the fish came openly within their reach but not so on other days. Thus, We were testing them because of their evil deeds. 163 And recall when a party of them said: 'Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or punish severely?' They said: 'We admonish them in order to be able to offer an excuse before Your Lord, and in the hope that they will guard against disobedience.' 164 Therefore, when they forgot that of which they were reminded, We saved those who were forbidding evil, and seized the evildoers with an evil punishment for that which they used to do of evil. 165 So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, "Be apes, despised." 166 And recall when Your Lord proclaimed that 'He would continually set in authority over them, till the Day of Judgement, those who would ruthless oppress thern.' Surely, your Lord is swift in chastising; and yet He is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful. 167 We dispersed them through the earth in nations some were righteous, others were not, and tested them with good and evil in order that they return. 168 Then there came after them an evil posterity who inherited the Book, taking only the frail good of this low life and saying: It will be forgiven us. And if the like good came to them, they would take it (too). Was not a promise taken from them in the Book that they would not speak anything about Allah but the truth, and they have read what is in it; and the abode of the hereafter is better for those who guard (against evil). Do you not then understand? 169 And those who hold fast to the Book, and have kept the prayer established; and We do not waste the wages of the righteous. 170 ۞ And when We shook the Mount above them as it were a covering, and they supposed that it was going to fall upon them (and We said): Hold fast that which We have given you, and remember that which is therein, that ye may ward off (evil). 171