We indeed sent many Messengers before you and We gave them wives and children; and no Messenger had the power to produce a miraculous sign except by the command of Allah. Every age has its own (revealed) Book. 38 Allah effaces whatever He wills and retains whatever He wills. With Him is the Mother of the Book. 39 (O Prophet), whether We make you see a part of the punishment that We have threatened them with come to pass during your life-time, or We take you away before that happens, your duty is no more than to convey the Message, and it is for Us to make a reckoning. 40 Have they not seen how We come to the land diminishing it in its extremities? God judges; none repels His judgment; He is swift at the reckoning. 41 And those before them had plotted, but to Allah belongs the plan entirely. He knows what every soul earns, and the disbelievers will know for whom is the final home. 42 The unbelievers claim that you have not been sent by Allah. Tell them: "Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you; and so also do those who know the Scriptures." 43