Surely Allah is the Knower of what is unseen in the heavens and the earth; surely He is Cognizant of what is in the hearts. 38 It is He who has made you each other's successors on earth. Whoever disbelieves, does so against his own self. The disbelief of the unbelievers will only increase the anger of their Lord and will only cause them greater loss. 39 Say: "Look at the compeers you invoke apart from God. Show me, what of the earth have they created, or what share have they in the heavens?" Or have We given them a Book whose testimony they possess? Not in the least. What the unbelievers have been promising one another is nothing but deceit. 40 ۞ It is Allah Who sustains the heavens and the earth, lest they cease (to function): and if they should fail, there is none - not one - can sustain them thereafter: Verily He is Most Forbearing, Oft-Forgiving. 41 They have sworn by God the most earnest oaths that if a warner came to them, they would be more rightly guided than any one of the nations; but when a warner came to them, it increased them only in aversion, 42 because of their pride in the land and their evil plots. Evil plots only affect the plotters. Do they expect anything other than (God's) tradition (torment) with those who lived before. You will never find any change in the tradition of God nor will you find any alteration in it. 43 Do they not travel through the earth, and see what was the End of those before them,- though they were superior to them in strength? Nor is Allah to be frustrated by anything whatever in the heavens or on earth: for He is All-Knowing. All-Powerful. 44 And were Allah to punish men for what they earn, He would not leave on the back of it any creature, but He respites them till an appointed term; so when their doom shall come, then surely Allah is Seeing with respect to His servants. 45