AND SET FORTH unto them a parable - [the story of how] the people of a township [behaved] when [Our] message-bearers came unto them. 13 When We sent them two messengers, they rejected them both, so We strengthened them with a third. They said, "Truly, we have been sent to you [by God] as messengers." 14 They (people of the town) said: "You are only human beings like ourselves, and the Most Beneficent (Allah) has revealed nothing, you are only telling lies." 15 They answered: Our Lord knoweth that we are indeed sent unto you, 16 And our duty is only to convey the message to you clearly," 17 The people said, "We have ill omens about you. If you will not desist, we shall stone you and make you suffer a painful torment". 18 The Messengers said, "This ill omen lies within yourselves. Will you then take heed? In fact, you are a transgressing people." 19 At that, a man came running from the farthest end of the city, [and] exclaimed: "O my people! Follow these message-bearers! 20 "Obey those who ask no reward of you (for themselves), and who have themselves received Guidance. 21 "Why should I not worship Him who has brought me into being, and to whom you shall all be recalled? 22 Should I take to worshipping [other] deities beside Him? [But then,] if the Most Gracious should will that harm befall me, their intercession could not in the least avail me, nor could they save me: 23 (Had I worshipped things besides God, I would have been in manifest error). 24 "Verily, [O my people,] in the Sustainer of you all have I come to believe: listen, then, to me!" 25 [And] he was told, "[Thou shalt] enter paradise!" - [whereupon] he exclaimed: "Would that my people knew 26 With what (munificence) my Lord hath pardoned me and made me of the honoured ones! 27 ۞ And We did not send down upon his people after him any hosts from heaven, nor do We ever send down. 28 It was naught but a single cry, and lo! they were still. 29 Alas for the servants! there comes not to them an apostle but they mock at him. 30 Have they not seen how many generations have We destroyed before them who will not return again? 31 They will all be brought into Our presence together. 32