(Before this,) We sent Moses The Book, and appointed his brother Aaron with him as minister; 35 Then We said: Go you both to the people who rejected Our communications; so We destroyed them with utter destruction. 36 And the people of Nuh! when they belied the apostles We drowned them, and made them a sign unto mankind. And We have gotten ready unto the wrong-doers a torment afflictive. 37 And Ad, and Thamood, and the men of Er-Rass, and between that generations a many, 38 to each of them We gave examples, and each of them We utterly ruined. 39 And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil: have they, then, never beheld it [with their minds eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection! 40 Hence, whenever they consider thee, [O Muhammad,] they but make thee a target of their mockery, [saying:] "Is this the one whom God has sent as an apostle? 41 He almost would have misled us from our gods had we not been steadfast in [worship of] them." But they are going to know, when they see the punishment, who is farthest astray in [his] way. 42 Did you see the one who chose his own desires as his God? So will you accept the responsibility of guarding him? 43 Or do you think that most of them hear or understand something? They are not but like the cattle – in fact more astray from the path than them! 44