۞ Give them the parable of two men. To one we gave two gardens of vines and surrounded them with palm trees and in between the two we placed a sown field. 32 Both the gardens gave yields and gave no shortfall in it – and We made a river to flow between the two. 33 And so [the man] had fruit in abundance. And [one day] he said to his friend, bandying words with him, "More wealth have I than thou, and mightier am I as regards [the number and power of my] followers!" 34 He went into his garden in a state (of mind) unjust to his soul: He said, "I deem not that this will ever perish, 35 I think not that the Hour will ever come, and if indeed I am brought back unto my Lord I surely shall find better than this as a resort. 36 While conversing with him his neighbour exclaimed: "Do you deny Him Who created you out of dust, then out of a drop of sperm, and then fashioned you into a complete man? 37 "But (I think) for my part that He is Allah, My Lord, and none shall I associate with my Lord. 38 Wherefore saidst thou not, when thou enteredest thy garden: whatsoever Allah may will! there is no power save in Allah! If thou beholdest I am inferior to thee in substance and offspring. 39 "It may be that my Lord will give me something better than your garden, and will send on it Husban (torment, bolt, etc.) from the sky, then it will be a slippery earth. 40 or its water may sink into the earth, so that you will never be able to find it again!" 41 So his fruits were encircled (with ruin). And he remained clapping his hands with sorrow over what he had spent upon it, while it was all destroyed on its trellises, he could only say: "Would I had ascribed no partners to my Lord!" [Tafsir Ibn Kathir] 42 He had no body to help him other than God, nor was he able to save himself. 43 For thus it is: all protective power belongs to God alone, the True One. He is the best to grant recompense, and the best to determine what is to be. 44