141 Preface تِلكَ أُمَّةٌ قَد خَلَت ۖ لَها ما كَسَبَت وَلَكُم ما كَسَبتُم ۖ وَلا تُسأَلونَ عَمّا كانوا يَعمَلونَYusuf AliThat was a people that hath passed away. They shall reap the fruit of what they did, and ye of what ye do! Of their merits there is no question in your case1:Verse 134 began a certain argument, which is now rounded off in the same words in this verse. To use a musical term, the motif is now completed. The argument is that it is wrong to claim a monopoly for God’s Message: it is the same peoples and in all ages: if it undergoes local variations or variations according to times and seasons those variations pass away. This leads to the argument in the remainder of the Sūra that with the renewal of the Message and the birth of a new people, a new symbolism and new ordinances become appropriate, and they are now expounded.