۞ And were Allah to hasten the ill unto mankind as their desire for hastening the good, their term would surely have been decreed unto them. So We let alone those who hope not for the meeting with Us, wandering in their exorbitance perplexed. 11 And (such is man that) when an affliction befalls him, he cries out to Us, reclining and sitting and standing. But no sooner than We have removed his affliction, he passes on as though he had never cried out to Us to remove his affliction. Thus it is that the misdeeds of the transgressors are made fair-seeming to them. 12 Generations before you We destroyed when they did wrong: their messengers came to them with clear-signs, but they would not believe! thus do We requite those who sin! 13 Then We made you successors in the land after them so that We may observe how you will do. 14 When Our clear messages are recited to them, those who do not hope to meet Us, say: "Bring a different Qur'an, or make amendments to this one." Say: "It is not for me to change it of my will. I follow (only) what is revealed to me. If I disobey my Lord, I fear the punishment of an awful Day." 15 Say: "If Allah had so willed, I should not have rehearsed it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. A whole life-time before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand?" 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 They serve, apart from God, what hurts them not neither profits them, and they say, 'These are our intercessors with God.' Say: 'Will you tell God what He knows not either in the heavens or in the earth?' Glory be to Him! High be He exalted above that they associate! 18 Mankind were but one community (i.e. on one religion - Islamic Monotheism), then they differed (later), and had not it been for a Word that went forth before from your Lord, it would have been settled between them regarding what they differed. 19 And they say: Why is not a sign sent to him from his Lord? Say: The unseen is only for Allah; therefore wait-- surely I too, with you am of those who wait. 20