Could, then, one whose bosom God has opened wide with willingness towards self-surrender unto Him, so that he is illumined by a light [that flows] from his Sustainer, [be likened to the blind and deaf of heart]? Woe, then, unto those whose hearts are hardened against all remembrance of God! They are most obviously lost in error! 22 God bestows from on high the best of all teachings in the shape of a divine writ fully consistent within itself, repeating each statement [of the truth] in manifold forms [a divine writ] whereat shiver the skins of all who of their Sustainer stand in awe: [but] in the end their skins and their hearts do soften at the remembrance of [the grace of] God. Such is God's guidance: He guides therewith him that wills [to be guided] whereas he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide 23 How woeful is the plight of him who has nothing except his face to shield him from severe chastisement on the Day of Resurrection? Such evil-doers shall be told: “Taste now the consequence of your deeds.” 24 Those before them rejected (prophets), therefore there came to them the chastisement from whence they perceived not. 25 Then God made them taste of disgrace in this life; and the torment of the life to come is greater, if they understand. 26 And assuredly We have propounded for mankind in this Qur'an all kinds of similitudes, that haply they may be admonished. 27 [It is] an Arabic Qur'an, without any deviance that they might become righteous. 28 God tells a parable in which there is a company of quarrelsome people and only one of them is well disciplined. Can they be considered as equal? It is only God who deserves all praise. In fact, most of them do not know. 29 Truly thou wilt die (one day), and truly they (too) will die (one day). 30 Then eventually all of you will contend before your Lord on the Day of Resurrection. 31