People pray as earnestly to gain evil as one should to gain virtue. But people are hasty. 11 We have appointed the night and the day as two signs; then We have blotted out the sign of the night, and made the sign of the day to see, and that you may seek bounty from your Lord, and that you may know the number of the years, and the reckoning; and everything We have distinguished very distinctly. 12 And [for] every person We have imposed his fate upon his neck, and We will produce for him on the Day of Resurrection a record which he will encounter spread open. 13 "Read your ledger; this day you are sufficient to take your own account. 14 Who receiveth guidance, receiveth it for his own benefit: who goeth astray doth so to his own loss: No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another: nor would We visit with Our Wrath until We had sent an messenger (to give warning). 15 When We decide to destroy a town, We command the affluent section of its people, but they transgress therein; thus the word [sentence of punishment] is justified, then We destroy the town utterly. 16 How many generations We have destroyed after Noah! Thy Lord suffices as one who is aware of and sees the sins of His servants. 17 Whoso desireth that (life) which hasteneth away, We hasten for him therein what We will for whom We please. And afterward We have appointed for him hell; he will endure the heat thereof, condemned, rejected. 18 And whoso desireth the Hereafter and striveth for it with the effort necessary, being a believer; for such, their effort findeth favour (with their Lord). 19 To each these as well as those We bestow from the Bounties of your Lord. And the Bounties of your Lord can never be forbidden. 20 See how We prefer one of them above another, and verily the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in preferment. 21 DO NOT set up any other deity side by side with God, lest thou find thyself disgraced and forsaken: 22