Blessed is He who, if He willed, could have made for you [something] better than that - gardens beneath which rivers flow - and could make for you palaces. 10 Nay, but they cry lies to the Hour; and We have prepared for him who cries lies to the Hour a Blaze. 11 when it shall face them from afar, they will hear its angry roar and its hiss; 12 And when they shall be thrown into a narrow place thereof, chained together, they will exclaim therein for destruction. 13 They will be told, "Do not pray to die only once but pray to die many times." 14 Say thou: is that better or Garden of Abidance that hath been promised to the God-fearing? It shall be theirs as a recompense and a retreat. 15 There will they have whatever they wish, and there abide for ever." This is a promise incumbent on your Lord which will certainly be fulfilled. 16 The day He will gather them together as well as those whom they worship besides Allah, He will ask: "Was it ye who let these My servants astray, or did they stray from the Path themselves?" 17 They will say: Be Thou Glorified! it was not for us to choose any protecting friends beside thee; but Thou didst give them and their fathers ease till they forgot the warning and became lost folk. 18 So they belie what you say, and you can neither turn it aside, nor find any help. Those of you who have done evil, We let them taste a great punishment. 19 AND [even] before thee, [O Muhammad,] We never sent as Our message-bearers any but [mortal men] who indeed ate food [like other human beings] and went about in the market places: for [it is thus that] We cause you [human beings] to be a means of testing one another. Are you able to endure [this test] with patience? For [remember, O man,] thy Sustainer is truly all-seeing! 20