AND, INDEED, [long before Muhammad] We vouchsafed revelation unto Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to help him to bear his burden; 35 And We command: "Go ye both, to the people who have rejected our Signs:" And those (people) We destroyed with utter destruction. 36 And the people of Nuh, when they rejected the apostles, We drowned them, and made them a sign for men, and We have prepared a painful punishment for the unjust; 37 Likewise were destroyed the `Ad and the Thamud and the people of the Rass, and many a generation in between. 38 We administered warnings to each of them, and then destroyed them completely. 39 Surely, these people have passed by that habitation on which was rained an evil rain: have they not seen its ruins? But they do not expect another life in the Hereafter. 40 When they see you they take you only in jest: "Is this the one whom God has sent as messenger? 41 He had well-nigh led us astray from our gods had we not adhered to them patiently! And they will know, when they see the punishment, who is straying farther off from the path. 42 Have you seen him who takes his low desires for his god? Will you then be a protector over him? 43 Or dost thou think that most of them listen [to thy message] and use their reason? Nay, they are but like cattle - nay, they are even less conscious of the right way! 44