۞ And if Allah should hasten the evil to men as they desire the hastening on of good, their doom should certainly have been decreed for them; but We leave those alone who hope not for Our meeting in their inordinacy, blindly wandering on. 11 For [thus it is:] when affliction befalls man, he cries out unto Us, whether he be lying on his side or sitting or standing; but as soon as We have freed him of his affliction, he goes on as though he had never invoked Us to save him from the affliction that befell him! Thus do their own doings seem goodly unto those who waste their own selves. 12 And assuredly We have destroyed the generations before you when they did wrong, while their apostles came unto them with the evidences, and they were not such as to believe. In this wise We requite the sinning people. 13 After them We made you their successors in the earth, so that We might see how you would do. 14 When Our clear revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say, "Bring us a different Quran, or make some changes in it." Say, "It is not for me to change it of my own accord. I follow only what is revealed to me. I fear, if I were to disobey my Lord, the punishment on a Dreadful Day." 15 Say thou: had Allah so willed, I would not have rehearsed it unto you, nor would He have acquainted you therewith. Of a surety I have tarried among you a lifetime before it. Would ye not then reflect? 16 Who doeth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie concerning Allah and denieth His revelations? Lo! the guilty never are successful. 17 And they worship, beside Allah, that which harmeth them not, nor profiteth them, and they say: these are our intercessors with God: Say thou: apprise ye Allah of that which He knoweth not in the heavens nor in the earth? Hallowed be He and Exalted far above that which ye associate! 18 Mankind were only one nation* and then they differed, and had it not been for a promise** from your Lord, the matters in which they differed would have been decided here itself. (* On one proper faith. ** The account on the Last Day.) 19 They (unbelievers) say, "Why has his Lord not given him some miracles to (support his claim of being His Messenger)?" Say "(The knowledge) of the unseen certainly belongs to God. Wait and I too shall be waiting with you. 20