We have sent forth other Messengers before you and given them wives and descendants. Yet none of them could bring a sign except by the permission of Allah. Every term has its Book. 38 God annuls or confirms whatever He wills [of His earlier messages] - for with Him is the source of all revelation. 39 Whether We let thee see something of that which We have promised them, or make thee die (before its happening), thine is but conveyance (of the message). Ours the reckoning. 40 Have they not considered that We have taken over the land and reduced its borders? It is God who issues the irreversible decree and His reckoning is swift. 41 And indeed those before them had plotted; therefore Allah Himself is the Master of all strategies; He knows all what every soul earns; and soon will the disbelievers realise for whom is the final abode. 42 The disbelievers say, “You are not a (Noble) Messenger (of Allah)”; proclaim, “Allah is a Sufficient Witness between me and you, and (so is) he who has knowledge of the Book.” 43