۞ PERMISSION [to fight] is given to those against whom war is being wrongfully waged and verily, God has indeed the power to succour them: 39 they are those who have been driven out of their homes unjustly, only because they said, "Our Lord is God." If God did not repel the aggression of some people by means of others, cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques, wherein the name of God is much invoked, would surely be destroyed. God will surely help him who helps His cause -- God is indeed powerful and mighty. 40 (They are) those who, if We establish them in the land, establish regular prayer and give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong: with Allah rests the end (and decision) of (all) affairs. 41 If they cry lies to thee, so too before them the people of Noah cried lies, and Ad and Thamood, 42 as did the people of Abraham, and the people of Lot, 43 and so did the dwellers of Midian, and Moses too was branded a liar. Initially I granted respite to the unbelievers for a while and then seized them. How dreadful was My punishment! 44 How many were the unjust dwellers of the towns that We destroyed. From their trellises to their lofty mansions, all were toppled and their wells were abandoned. 45 Have these people not travelled through the land to make their hearts understand and let their ears hear; the truth is that it is not the eyes that are blind but the hearts that are in the bosoms that are blinded. 46 And [so, O Muhammad,] they challenge thee to hasten the coming upon them of [God's] chastisement: but God never fails to fulfill His promise - and behold, in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning. 47 And how many a village have I respited in its evil doing! Then I seized it. To Me is the return. 48