Those who associate [others with God] say, "If God had so willed we would not have worshipped anything besides Him, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden anything without His sanction." So did those who went before them. The duty of the messengers is only to convey the message clearly. 35 And indeed, within every community have We raised up an apostle [entrusted with this message]: "Worship God, and shun the powers of evil!" And among those [past generations] were people whom God graced with His guidance, just as there was among them [many a one] who inevitably fell prey to grievous error: go, then, about the earth and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 36 Even if you are eager to guide them, God does not surely guide those who have gone astray: They will have no one to help them. 37 They have sworn by God the most earnest oaths God will never raise up him who dies; nay, it is a promise binding upon Him, but most men know not, 38 This will be in order that he may manifest unto them that wherein they differ, and that those who disbelieved should come to know that they had been liars. 39 Whenever We will anything to be, We but say unto it Our word "Be" - and it is. 40