۞ And present to them an example of two men: We granted to one of them two gardens of grapevines, and We bordered them with palm trees and placed between them [fields of] crops. 32 and a stream flowing through the middle of the gardens. 33 And so [the man] had fruit in abundance. And [one day] he said to his friend, bandying words with him, "More wealth have I than thou, and mightier am I as regards [the number and power of my] followers!" 34 And he entered his garden, while he was a wrong-doer in respect of his own soul; he said: I imagine not that this shall ever perish. 35 "And I think not the Hour will ever come, and if indeed I am brought back to my Lord, (on the Day of Resurrection), I surely shall find better than this when I return to Him." 36 His comrade, when he (thus) spake with him, exclaimed: Disbelievest thou in Him Who created thee of dust, then of a drop (of seed), and then fashioned thee a man? 37 But as for me, He is Allah, my Lord, and I do not associate with my Lord anyone. 38 Why, when thou wentest into thy garden, didst thou not say, "As God will; there is no power except in God"? If thou seest me, that I am less than thou in wealth and children, 39 it may well be that my Lord will give me something better than your vineyard, and send a calamity upon your vineyard from the heavens and it will be reduced to a barren waste, 40 Or some morning the water thereof will be lost in the earth so that thou canst not make search for 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 there was no host, beside Allah, to help him, nor could he be of any help to himself. 43 The jurisdiction in this province belongs to God. His is the best reward, and His the best requital. 44