۞ Leave is given to those who fight because they were wronged -- surely God is able to help them -- 39 those who have been driven from their homelands against all right for no other reason than their saying: "Our Sustainer is God!" For, if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another, all] monasteries and churches and synagogues and mosques - in [all of] which God's name is abundantly extolled - would surely have been destroyed [ere now]. And God will most certainly succour him who succours His cause: for, verily, God is most powerful, almighty, 40 Those who would be firm in devotion, give zakat, and enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong, if We gave them authority in the land. But the resultance of things rests with God. 41 AND IF THEY [who are bent on denying the truth] give thee the lie, [O Muhammad, remember that, long] before their time, the people of Noah and [the tribes of] Ad and Thamud gave the lie [to their prophets,] 42 So did the people of Abraham and the people of Lot, 43 and the inhabitants of Midian, to Moses they also belied. I respited the unbelievers, then I seized them, and how was My disapproval! 44 And many a township have We destroyed while it was given to wrong-doing, so that it lies in ruins (up to this day), and (many) a deserted well and lofty castles! 45 Have they not travelled through the land, and have they hearts wherewith to understand and ears wherewith to hear? Verily, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that grow blind. 46 And they ask you for the punishment – they are impatient – and Allah will not make His promise untrue; and indeed a single day before Allah is like a thousand years in your calculation. 47 To how many habitations did We give respite, though given to wickedness, and then seized them. To Me they had to come back in the end. 48