When the decree of God is issued, satan will say, "God's promise to you was true, but I, too, made a promise to you and disregarded it. I had no authority over you. I just called you and you answered. Do not blame me but blame yourselves. I cannot help you and you cannot help me. I did not agree with your belief that I was equal to God." The unjust will face a painful punishment. 22 And those who believed and did righteous deeds will be admitted to gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding eternally therein by permission of their Lord; and their greeting therein will be, "Peace!" 23 Consider (Muhammad) how God (in a parable) compares the blessed Word to that of a blessed tree which has firm roots and branches rising up into the sky 24 By the leave of its Lord its fruit in all seasons, God presents words of wisdom to men that they might reflect. 25 And the example of an evil word is that of an evil tree, uprooted from the surface of the earth, wholly unable to endure. 26 [Thus,] God grants firmness unto those who have attained to faith through the word that is unshakably true in the life of this world as well as in the life to come; but the wrongdoers He lets go astray: for God does whatever He wills. 27