Moreover, we have enjoined on man to shew kindness to his parents. With pain his mother beareth him; with pain she bringeth him forth: and his bearing and his weaning is thirty months; until when he attaineth his strength, and attaineth to forty years,5 he saith, "O my Lord! stir me up to be grateful for thy favours wherewith thou hast favoured me and my parents, and to do good works which shall please thee: and prosper me in my offspring: for to thee am I turned, and am resigned to thy will" (am a Muslim). These are they from whom we will accept their best works, and whose evil works we will pass by; among the inmates shall they be of Paradise:-a true promise which they are promised. But he who saith to his parents, "Fie on you both! Promise ye me that I shall be taken forth from the grave alive, when whole generations have already passed away before me?" But they both will implore the help of God, and say, "Alas for thee! Believe: for the promise of God is true." But he saith, "It is no more than a fable of the ancients." These are they in whom the sentence passed on the nations, djinn and men, who flourished before them, is made good. They shall surely perish.6 And there are grades for all, according to their works, that God may repay them for their works; and they shall not be dealt with unfairly. And they who believe not shall one day be set before the fire. "Ye made away your precious gifts during your life on earth; and ye took your fill of pleasure in them: This day, therefore, with punishment of shame shall ye be rewarded, for that ye behaved you proudly and unjustly on the earth, and for that ye were given to excesses." Remember, too, the brother of Ad7 when he warned his people in AL AHKAF8-and before and since his time there have been warners-"Worship none but God: verily I fear for you the punishment of the great day." They said, "Art thou come to us to turn us away from our Gods? Bring on us now the woes which thou threatenest if thou speakest truth." "That knowledge," said he, "is with God alone: I only proclaim to you the message with which I am sent. But I perceive that ye are a people sunk in ignorance." So when they saw a cloud coming straight for their valleys, they said, "It is a passing cloud that shall give us rain." "Nay, it is that whose speedy coming ye challenged a blast wherein is an afflictive punishment:- It will destroy everything at the bidding of its Lord!" And at morn nought was to be seen but their empty dwellings! Thus repay we a wicked people. With power had we endued them, even as with power have we endued you; and we had given them ears and eyes and hearts: yet neither their eyes, nor their ears, nor their hearts aided them at all, when once they gainsaid the signs of God; but that punishment which they had mocked at enveloped them on all sides. Of old, too, did we destroy the cities which were round about you; and, in order that they might return to us, we varied our signs before them.