[43:23]
And even so We sent not
a warner before thee (Muhammad) into any township but its luxurious ones said:
Lo! we found our fathers following a religion, and we
are following their footprints.
[43:24]
(And the warner) said: What! Even though I bring
you better guidance than that ye found your fathers following
? They answered: Lo! in what ye bring we are
disbelievers.
[43:25]
So We requited them.
Then see the nature of the consequence for the rejecters!
[43:26]
And when Abraham said unto his father and his
folk: Lo! I am innocent of what ye worship
[43:27]
Save Him Who did create
me, for He will surely guide me.
[43:28]
And he made it a word enduring among his seed, that haply they might return.
[43:29]
Nay, but I let these and their fathers enjoy
life (only) till there should come unto them the Truth and a messenger making
plain.
[43:30]
And now that the Truth hath come unto them they
say: This is mere magic, and lo! we are disbelievers
therein.
[43:31]
And they say: If only this Qur’an had been
revealed to some great man of the two towns ?
[43:32]
Is it they who apportion thy Lord’s mercy ? We have apportioned among them their livelihood in
the life of the world, and raised some of them above others in rank that some
of them may take labour from others; and the mercy of thy Lord is better than
(the wealth) that they amass.
[43:33]
And were it not that mankind would have become
one community, We might well have appointed, for those who disbelieve in the
Beneficent, roofs of silver for their houses and stairs (of silver) whereby to
mount,