[And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" - for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 130 Your Lord would not destroy a community for its wrongdoing, so long as its people were still unaware. 131 And for everyone are ranks from what they do; and your Lord is not unaware of their deeds. 132 Your Lord is Self-Sufficient, full of compassion. If He wills, He can put you away and cause whomever He wills to succeed you just as He has produced you from the seed of another people. 133 The promise that was made to you is bound to be fulfilled. It is not in your power to defeat it. 134 Say, "O my people! Go on acting in your way; indeed I am going to act in my way; soon you will know whose end will be best in the Hereafter." Surely, the wrongdoers shall not prosper. 135 They assign unto Allah, of the crops and cattle which He created, a portion, and they say: "This is Allah's" - in their make-believe - "and this is for (His) partners in regard to us." Thus that which (they assign) unto His partners in them reacheth not Allah and that which (they assign) unto Allah goeth to their (so-called) partners. Evil is their ordinance. 136 Thus those associates of theirs have decked out fair to many idolaters to slay their children, to destroy them, and to confuse their religion for them. Had God willed, they would not have done so; so leave them to their forging. 137 They say: 'These animals and these crops are sacrosanct: none may eat of them save those whom we will' - imposing interdictions of their own contriving. And they declare that it is forbidden to burden the backs of certain cattle, and these are the cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah. All these are false fabrications against Allah, and He will soon requite them for all that they fabricate. 138 They also say: 'What is in the bellies (wombs) of these cattle is reserved for our males but not for our wives' But if it is stillborn, they all partake of it. He will recompense them for their describing. He is Wise, Knowing. 139 Lost are those who, without knowledge, have foolishly slain their own children and made unlawful that which Allah has provided them, fabricating lies about Allah. They have gone astray and are not guided. 140