AND, INDEED, [long before Muhammad] We vouchsafed revelation unto Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to help him to bear his burden; 35 then We said to them, "Go to the people who have treated Our Revelations as false. " So We annihilated those people utterly. 36 We drowned the people of Noah also when they rejected their messengers and We made them an example to all mankind. We have prepared a painful punishment for the wrongdoers, 37 And [We destroyed] 'Aad and Thamud and the companions of the well and many generations between them. 38 We gave guidance and drove each to destruction. 39 They must have surely passed by the town on which We had rained the terrible rain of ruin. How could they not have seen it? Still they do not dread the Resurrection. 40 And when they see you, [O Muhammad], they take you not except in ridicule, [saying], "Is this the one whom Allah has sent as a messenger? 41 Indeed, he would well-nigh have led us astray from our deities, had we not been [so] steadfastly attached to them!" When they behold the punishment, they shall realize who strayed furthest from the right path. 42 Hast thou seen him who chooseth for his god his own lust? Wouldst thou then be guardian over him? 43 Or do you think that most of them do hear or understand? They are nothing but as cattle; nay, they are straying farther off from the path. 44