Those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity say: "Were Allah to will so, neither we nor our forefathers would have worshipped any other than Him, nor would we have prohibited anything without His command." Their predecessors proffered similar excuses. Do the Messengers have any other duty but to plainly convey the Message? 35 And verily We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming): Serve Allah and shun false gods. Then some of them (there were) whom Allah guided, and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just hold. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers! 36 Even if you are eager to guide them, God does not surely guide those who have gone astray: They will have no one to help them. 37 As it is, they swear by God with their most solemn oaths, "Never will God raise from the dead anyone who has died!" Yea indeed! [This very thing has God promised] by a promise which He has willed upon Himself; but most people know it not. 38 so that He may make clear to them that whereon they were at variance, and that the unbelievers may know that they were truly liars. 39 (As for the possibility of resurrection, bear in mind that) whenever We do will something, We have to do no more than say: "Be", and it is. 40