۞ If God were to hasten the evil, as men try to hasten the good, their term would come to end. So We leave those who do not expect to meet Us to wander perplexed in transgression. 11 When man is afflicted with adversity he calls to Us, whether lying on his side, or sitting or standing. But when We take away his troubles, he moves away, as though he had never called to Us in affliction. In the same way, attractive have been made their deeds to the prodigals. 12 How many generations did We lay low before you when they became wilfully unjust. Their apostles had brought clear proofs to them, yet they never believed. So We punished the sinful people. 13 We have made you their successors in the land so that We could see how you behaved. 14 And when Our signs are recited to them, clear signs, those who look not to encounter Us say, 'Bring a Koran other than this, or alter it.' Say: 'It is not for me to alter it of my own accord. I follow nothing, except what is revealed to me. Truly I fear, if I should rebel against my Lord, the chastisement of a dreadful day.' 15 Say, "If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, for I had remained among you a lifetime before it. Then will you not reason?" 16 Who, then, is a greater wrong-doer than he who forges a lie against Allah or rejects His signs as false? Surely the guilty shall not prosper. 17 And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, "These are our intercessors with Allah." Say, "Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?" Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him 18 And people are naught but a single nation, so they disagree; and had not a word already gone forth from your Lord, the matter would have certainly been decided between them in respect of that concerning which they disagree. 19 They ask, "Why has no sign been sent down to him from his Lord?" Tell them, "God alone has knowledge of the unseen. So wait; I too will wait with you." 20