24. " this is because they said: ` the fire shall not touch us but for a number of days'. that which they were forging has deceived them in their religion." commentary: the vain mottoes and wrong imaginations of the jews have immencely been mentioned in the qur'an that they used to say some things with the sense that: " we are the exalted and beloved nation with allah, and we will not be punished except for those forty days that our ancestors worshipped the calf ". this very sort of imagination caused them their pride and deviation. " this is because they said: ` the fire shall not touch us but for a number of days'. that which they were forging has deceived them in their religion." even today, the israelites believe in their racial superiority, and they refrain from no transgression to gain it.