Say thou unto My bondmen that they should say that which is best, Verily the Satan would stir up strife between them; verily the Satan is unto men ever an enemy manifest. 53 Your Lord is the Best Knower of you; if He willeth He will have mercy upon you, or if He willeth He will torment you. And We have not sent thee over them as a trustee. 54 And your Lord best knows those who are in the heavens and the earth; and certainly We have made some of the prophets to excel others, and to Dawood We gave a scripture. 55 Say: 'Call on those you asserted apart from Him; they have no power to remove affliction from you, or to transfer it. 56 Those whom they call upon are themselves seeking the means of access to their Lord, each trying to be nearer to Him. They crave for His Mercy and dread His chastisement. Surely your Lord's punishment is to be feared. 57 Not a town is there but We are going to destroy it before the Day of Judgment or to torment it with a severe torment; that is in the Book inscribed. 58 We did not abstain from sending miracles to any of Our Messengers. These miracles were called lies by the people who lived in ancient times. To the people of Thamud, We sent the she-camel as a visible miracle and they did injustice to it. We only send miracles as warnings. 59 And when We said to thee, 'Surely thy Lord encompasses men,' and We made the vision that We showed thee and the tree cursed in the Koran to be only a trial for men; and We frighten them, but it only increases them in great insolence. 60