He sets forth to you a parable relating to yourselves: Have you among those whom your right hands possess partners in what We have given you for sustenance, so that with respect to it you are alike; you fear them as you fear each other? Thus do We make the communications distinct for a people who understand. 28 Nay, the wrong-doers (merely) follow their own lusts, being devoid of knowledge. But who will guide those whom Allah leaves astray? To them there will be no helpers. 29 Therefore set your attention for obeying Allah, devoted solely to Him; the foundation set by Allah, upon which He created man; do not change what Allah has created; this is the proper religion – but most people do not know. 30 ۞ Turn ye back in repentance to Him, and fear Him: establish regular prayers, and be not ye among those who join gods with Allah,- 31 [or] among those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects, each group delighting in but what they themselves hold [by way of tenets]. 32 When affliction befalls mankind they turn to Him calling their Lord in prayer, but when He lets them taste His Mercy, some of them assign associates to their Lord, 33 and are ungrateful for what We have given them. So enjoy yourselves for a while, but soon you will come to know. 34 Or have We sent down authority to them, which points out to them the things to which they pay part-worship? 35 When We give people a taste of mercy, they rejoice in it, but when evil befalls them through the forwarding of their own hands, they become despondent. 36 Do they not see that Allah enlarges and straitens the sustenance of those whom He pleases? There are Signs in this for those who believe. 37 Then give to the near of kin his due, and to the needy and the wayfarer; this is best for those who desire Allah's pleasure, and these it is who are successful. 38 That which ye lay out for increase through the property of (other) people, will have no increase with Allah: but that which ye lay out for charity, seeking the Countenance of Allah, (will increase): it is these who will get a recompense multiplied. 39 Allah is He Who created you and then sustained you, then causeth you to die, then giveth life to you again. Is there any of your (so-called) partners (of Allah) that doeth aught of that? Praised and Exalted be He above what they associate (with Him)! 40