۞ AND PROPOUND unto them the parable of two men, upon one of whom We had bestowed two vinyards, and surrounded them with date-palms, and placed a field of grain in-between. 32 Each of the two gardens yielded its produce and did not fail in the least and We made a river to gush through them, 33 So he became rich. Arguing one day with his friend he said: "I have more wealth than you and more powerful kinsmen." 34 And having [thus] sinned against himself, he entered his garden, saying, "I do not think that this will ever perish! 35 Nor do I think that the Hour will come. Even if I returned to my Lord, I should surely find a better place than this' 36 And his friend answered him in the course of their argument: "Wilt thou blaspheme against Him who has created thee out of dust, and then out of a drop of sperm, and in the end has fashioned thee into a [complete] man? 37 As for myself, Allah alone is my Lord, and I associate none with my Lord in His Divinity. 38 When you entered your garden, why did you not say: 'As God may please;' for no one has power except given by God? Though you see me poorer in wealth and children than you, 39 "It may be that my Lord will give me something better than thy garden, and that He will send on thy garden thunderbolts (by way of reckoning) from heaven, making it (but) slippery sand!- 40 Or else of a morning its water may sink underground, and you will not find a trace of it." 41 So his fruits were encircled (with ruin). And he remained clapping his hands with sorrow over what he had spent upon it, while it was all destroyed on its trellises, he could only say: "Would I had ascribed no partners to my Lord!" [Tafsir Ibn Kathir] 42 And he had no host to help him besides Allah nor could he defend himself. 43 For thus it is: all protective power belongs to God alone, the True One. He is the best to grant recompense, and the best to determine what is to be. 44