Praise is only for Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth and ordained light and many kinds of darkness; in spite of this, those who have rejected the Message of their Lord have set up equal partners with Him1 It is He Who has created you from earth2 and decreed a fixed term of life for you, and with Him there is another settled3 term also yet you have doubts thereof. He is the same One Allah in the heavens as well as on the earth: He knows all that you make known and all that you keep secret and is fully aware of the good or evil that you earn. Yet the reaction of the people has been that whenever a Sign from the Signs of their Lord has come to them, they have turned away from it: accordingly, they have rejected as false the Truth that has come to them now. Well, they will receive some news4 about what they have been ridiculing so far. Do they not see that We destroyed before them many a people who were dominant in the world during their time? We had given them such power in the land as We have not given you. We sent down for them abundant rains from heavens and made canals flow beneath them. But (when they showed ingratitude), We destroyed them because of their sins and raised up other people in their place. O Messenger, even if We had sent down to you a Book written on paper, and even if they had touched it with their own hands, the disbelievers would have said, "This is nothing but manifest sorcery." And they say, "Why has no angel been sent down to him?"5 If We had sent down an angel, their fate would have been decided long before this and they would have been given no respite after this;6 for if We had sent an angel, We would have sent him in human form and thus involved them in the same doubt in which they are involved now.7 O Muhammad, many Messengers before you have also been ridiculed, but in the long run those who mocked were overpowered by the very thing they had mocked. Say to them, "Just travel in the land and see the end of those who treated the Truth as false."8