We sent Messengers before you (Muhammad) and gave them wives and offspring. No Messenger was to show miracles without the permission of God. 38 Allah eliminates what He wills or confirms, and with Him is the Mother of the Book. 39 Whether We show thee a part of that We promise them, or We call thee to Us, it is thine only to deliver the Message, and Ours the reckoning. 40 See they not that We gradually reduce the land (in their control) from its outlying borders? (Where) Allah commands, there is none to put back His Command: and He is swift in calling to account. 41 Those who have gone before them devised, but to Allah is the devising altogether. He knows what every soul earns. The unbelievers shall know without doubt for whom is the Ultimate Abode. 42 And those who have disbelieved say, "You are not a messenger." Say, [O Muhammad], "Sufficient is Allah as Witness between me and you, and [the witness of] whoever has knowledge of the Scripture." 43