Ask them concerning the town standing close by the sea. Behold! they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath. For on the day of their Sabbath their fish did come to them, openly holding up their heads, but on the day they had no Sabbath, they came not: thus did We make a trial of them, for they were given to transgression. 163 And when a certain nation of them said, 'Why do you admonish a people God is about to destroy or to chastise with a terrible chastisement?' They said, 'As an excuse to your Lord; and haply they will be godfearing.' 164 When they (the unjust people) forgot what was preached to them, We saved the preachers from evil and afflicted the unjust for their evil deeds, with a dreadful torment. 165 When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected." 166 And remember when your Lord announced the command that till the Day of Resurrection I will certainly send such oppressors against them, who will inflict them with a dreadful punishment; indeed your Lord is swift in meting out punishment; and indeed He is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 167 We broke them up into sections on this earth. There are among them some that are the righteous, and some that are the opposite. We have tried them with both prosperity and adversity: In order that they might turn (to us). 168 They were succeeded by generations who inherited the Scripture and took to the fleeting gains of this world, saying, "We shall certainly be forgiven." If there came to them similar fleeting gains again, they would take them. Was a pledge not taken from them, written in the Scripture, that they would not say anything but the truth about God? And they have studied whatever is in it. Surely the Home of the Hereafter is better for those who fear Him. Will you not understand? 169 As for those who hold fast to the Book and are steadfast in prayer, We shall not deny the righteous their reward. 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