And ask them (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him) of the township that was by the sea; when they used to exceed in the matter of the Sabbath – when their fish used to come swimming atop the water in front of them on the day of Sabbath and not come on the days it was not Sabbath; this is how We used to test them, due to their disobedience. 163 And when a community among them said, "Why do you advise [or warn] a people whom Allah is [about] to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?" they [the advisors] said, "To be absolved before your Lord and perhaps they may fear Him." 164 So, when they forgot that they were reminded of; We delivered those who were forbidding wickedness, and We seized the evildoers with evil chastisement for their ungodliness. 165 So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed! 166 And when Thy Lord proclaimed He would send forth against them, unto the Day of Resurrection, those who should visit them with evil chastisement. Surely thy Lord is swift in retribution; surely He is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. 167 We split them up into sections on the earth. Some of them are righteous while some of them are otherwise, and We tested them with blessings and misfortunes, so that they might return to the right path. 168 And they have been succeeded by [new] generations who - [in spite of] having inherited the divine writ - clutch but at the fleeting good of this lower world and say: "We shall be forgiven, the while they are ready, if another such fleeting good should come their way, to clutch at it [and sin again]. Have they not been solemnly pledged through the divine writ not to attribute unto God aught but what is true, and [have they not] read again and again all that is therein? Since the life in the hereafter is the better [of the two] for all who are conscious of God - will you not, then, use your reason? 169 And those who hold fast by the Book and establish prayer - verily We shall not waste the hire of the rectifiers. 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