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how, when some of them asked [their preachers], ‘Why do you bother preaching to people God will destroy, or at least punish severely?’ [the preachers] answered, ‘In order to be free from your Lord’s blame, and so that they may perhaps take heed.’

When they ignored [the warning] they were given, We saved those who forbade evil, and punished the wrongdoers severely because of their disobedience.

When, in their arrogance, they persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We said to them, ‘Be like apes! Be outcasts!’

And then your Lord declared that, until the Day of Resurrection, He would send people against them to inflict terrible suffering on them. Your Lord is swift in punishment but He is most forgiving and merciful.

We dispersed them over the earth in separate communities- some are righteous and some less so: We tested them with blessings and misfortunes, so that they might all return [to righteousness]-

and they were succeeded by generations who, although they inherited the Scripture, took the fleeting gains of this lower world, saying, ‘We shall be forgiven,’ and indeed taking them again if other such gains came their way. Was a pledge not taken from them, writ-ten in the Scripture, to say nothing but the truth about God? And they have studied its contents well. For those who are mindful of God, the Hereafter is better. ‘Why do you not use your reason?’

But as for those who hold fast to the Scripture and keep up the prayer, We do not deny righteous people their rewards.