Say to My servants that they should (only) say those things that are best: for Satan doth sow dissensions among them: For Satan is to man an avowed enemy. 53 Your Lord knows you very well. He will have mercy on you if He will, or punish you if He will. We have not sent you to be their guardian. 54 We have given preference to some Prophets over others and We gave the psalms to David. 55 Say: "Call those whom you imagine to be gods besides Him; yet they have no power to relieve you of any distress or to avert it." 56 Those, they call upon are themselves seeking a means to come to their Lord, competing with each other to be nearer; they hope for His Mercy and fear His punishment. Indeed, the punishment of your Lord is the subject of caution. 57 And there is not a town but We will destroy it before the day of resurrection or chastise it with a severe chastisement; this is written in the Divine ordinance. 58 Naught hindereth Us from sending portents save that the folk of old denied them. And We gave Thamud the she-camel - a clear portent save to warn. 59 When We said to you: 'Indeed, your Lord encompasses all people' We did not make the vision which We showed to you, and the tree cursed in the Koran except to be a trial for people, and We frighten them, but it only increases them in great insolence. 60