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dhālika bi-ʾannahum qālū lan tamassanā n-nāru ʾillā ʾayyāman maʿdūdātin wa-gharrahum fī dīnihim mā kānū yaftarūna
That is because they say, ‘The Fire shall not touch us except for a number of days,’ and they have been misled in their religion by what they used to fabricate.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah 'Ali-Imran, Verse 24
The vain mottoes and wrong imaginations of the Jews have immensely 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.
Even today, the Israelites believe in their racial superiority, and they refrain from no transgression to gain it.