۞ And if Allah was to hasten for the people the evil [they invoke] as He hastens for them the good, their term would have been ended for them. But We leave the ones who do not expect the meeting with Us, in their transgression, wandering blindly 11 And when some hardship reaches man he prays to Us, while reclining and sitting and standing; and when We remove his hardship, he goes away as if he had never prayed to Us because of any hardship; this is how the deeds of the transgressors are made seeming good to them. 12 And assuredly We have destroyed the generations before you when they did wrong, while their apostles came unto them with the evidences, and they were not such as to believe. In this wise We requite the sinning people. 13 Then We appointed you as caliphs in the earth after them, in order that We might see what deeds you perform. 14 But when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed unto them, those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, Say: "Bring us a reading other than this, or change this," Say: "It is not for me, of my own accord, to change it: I follow naught but what is revealed unto me: if I were to disobey my Lord, I should myself fear the penalty of a Great Day (to come)." 15 Say, "If God had so wished, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have brought it to your knowledge. Indeed, I have spent a whole lifetime among you before it came to me. How can you not use your reason?" 16 Who, then, is a greater wrong-doer than he who forges a lie against Allah or rejects His signs as false? Surely the guilty shall not prosper. 17 And they worship the thing other than Allah, which neither harms them nor benefits them*, and they say, “These are our intercessors** before Allah”; say, “What! You inform Allah of something which in His knowledge does not exist in the heavens or in the earth?” Purity and Supremacy are to Him, above their association. (* Some things like the sun, stars, trees are useful but they too are created by Allah. Their worship will not benefit – in fact it is harmful ** Only the virtuous will be granted permission by Allah to intercede.) 18 Men were once a community of one faith; but they differed (and followed different ways). Had it not been for the word proclaimed by your Lord before, their differences would have been resolved. 19 They (unbelievers) say, "Why has his Lord not given him some miracles to (support his claim of being His Messenger)?" Say "(The knowledge) of the unseen certainly belongs to God. Wait and I too shall be waiting with you. 20