No sooner than We bestow mercy on a people after hardship has hit them than they begin to scheme against Our signs. Tell them: 'Allah is swifter in scheming. Our angels are recording all your intriguing. 21 It is He Who transports you over the land and the sea; to the extent that when you are in ships – and the ships sail with them with a favourable breeze and they rejoice at it – a gust of strong wind reaches them and waves come to them from every side and they realise that they are surrounded, – thereupon they pray to Allah as His sincere bondmen that, “If You rescue us from this, we will surely be thankful.” 22 When We saved you, you started to rebel unjustly in the land. People, your rebellion will only harm yourselves. You may enjoy the worldly life but to Us you will all return and We will let you know all that you had done. 23 The likeness of this present life is as water that We send down out of heaven, and the plants of the earth mingle with it whereof men and cattle eat, till, when the earth has taken on its glitter and has decked itself fair, and its inhabitants think they have power over it, Our command comes upon it by night or day, and We make it stubble, as though yesterday it flourished not. Even so We distinguish the signs for a people who reflect. 24 God invites every one to the House of Peace and guides whomever He wants to the right path. 25 ۞ The righteous will receive good reward for their deeds and more. Their faces will suffer no disgrace or ignominy. They will be the dwellers of Paradise wherein they will live forever. 26 Those who do evil deeds, the recompense of an evil deed is its like, and humiliation shall spread over them and there will be none to protect them from Allah. Darkness will cover their faces as though they were veiled with the dark blackness of night. These are the people of the Fire and in it they shall abide. 27 The day We shall gather them all together We shall say to the idolaters: "Take your stand with the compeers you worshipped as the equals of God." We shall then create a rift between them, and the compeers will say: "You did not worship us; 28 and none can bear witness between us and you as God does: we were, for certain, unaware of your worshipping [us]. 29 Then every soul shall realize what it has done. They shall be returned to God, their true Master, and anything they had invented will forsake them. 30