Indeed Allah is All Knowing – of all the hidden things in the heavens and in the earth; indeed He knows what lies within the hearts. 38 He it is who hath made you successors in the earth. So whosoever disbelieveth, on him will befall his infidelity. And for the infidels their infidelity increaseth with their Lord naught save abhorence. And for the infidels their infidelity increaseth naught save 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 ۞ God holds the heavens and the earth, lest they remove; did they remove, none would hold them after Him. Surely He is All-clement, All-forgiving. 41 As it is, they [who are averse to the truth often] swear by God with their most solemn oaths that if a warner should ever come to them, they would follow his guidance better than any of the communities [of old had followed the warner sent to them]: but now that a warner has come unto them, [his call] but increases their aversion, 42 (Shown in their) behaving arrogantly in the land and plotting evil; and the evil plot encloseth but the men who make it. Then, can they expect aught save the treatment of the folk of old? Thou wilt not find for Allah's way of treatment any substitute, nor wilt thou find for Allah's way of treatment aught of power to change. 43 Have they not journeyed in the earth to behold the end of those who went before them though they were stronger than them in might? Nothing in the heavens nor on earth can frustrate Him in the least. He is All-Knowing, All-Powerful. 44 Were Allah to take mankind to task for that which they earn, He would not leave a moving creature on the back thereof; but He putteth them off until a term appointed; then when their term cometh, then, verily Allah is ever of His bondmen a Beholder. 45