AND TELL My servants that they should speak in the most kindly manner [unto those who do not share their beliefs]: verily, Satan is always ready to stir up discord between men - for, verily, Satan is man's open foe! 53 Your Lord knows you very well. He will have mercy on you if He will, or punish you if He will. We have not sent you to be their guardian. 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 Call upon those you claim to be deities besides God and you will know that they have no power to remove affliction from you or to bring about any change [that you may desire]. 56 Those whom they worship seek to find intercessors for themselves with God. (They try to find out which of the intercessors) are closer to God. They have hope for His mercy and fear of His punishment; the punishment of your Lord is awesome. 57 And there is no such dwelling but which We shall destroy before the Day of Resurrection, or punish it severely; this is written in the Book. 58 And nothing has prevented Us from sending [this message, like the earlier ones,] with miraculous signs [in its wake,] save [Our knowledge] that the people of olden times [only too often] gave the lie to them: thus, We provided for [the tribe of] Thamud the she-camel as a light-giving portent, and they sinned against it. And never did We send those signs for any other purpose than to convey a warning. 59 And (remember) when We told you: "Verily! Your Lord has encompassed mankind (i.e. they are in His Grip)." And We made not the vision which we showed you (O Muhammad as an actual eye-witness and not as a dream on the night of Al-Isra') but a trial for mankind, and likewise the accursed tree (Zaqqum, mentioned) in the Quran. We warn and make them afraid but it only increases them in naught save great disbelief, oppression and disobedience to Allah. 60