God has favoured some of you over others in the means of subsistence. But those who have been favoured with more do not give of their means to their dependents so that they may become equal with them. Do they then deny God's beneficence? 71 And God has given you mates of your own kinds and has given you, through your mates, children and children's children, and has provided for you sustenance out of the good things of life. Will men, then, [continue to] believe in things false and vain, and thus blaspheme against God's blessings? 72 Do they worship things other than God which neither provide them with any sustenance from the heavens and the earth nor have the ability to do so? 73 Therefore do not give likenesses to Allah; surely Allah knows and you do not know. 74 ۞ Allah sets forth a parable: There is one who is a slave and is owned by another and has no power over anything; and there is one whom We have granted good provision Ourselves, of which he spends both secretly and openly. Can they be equal? All praise be to Allah. But most of them do not even know (this simple fact). 75 And God propounds [to you] the parable of two [other] men - one of them dumb, unable to do anything of his own accord, and a sheer burden on his master: to whichever task the latter directs him, he accomplishes no good. Can such a one be considered the equal of [a wise man] who enjoins the doing of what is right and himself follows a straight way? 76