No sooner than We bestow mercy on a people after hardship has hit them than they begin to scheme against Our signs. Tell them: 'Allah is swifter in scheming. Our angels are recording all your intriguing. 21 He it is who enables you to travel on land and sea. And [behold what happens] when you go to sea in ships: [they go to sea in ships,] and they sail on in them in a favourable wind, and they rejoice thereat until there comes upon them a tempest, and waves surge towards them from all sides, so that they believe themselves to be encompassed [by death; and then] they call unto God, [at that moment] sincere in their faith in Him alone, "If Thou wilt but save us from this, we shall most certainly be among the grateful!" 22 But no sooner than He delivers them than they go about committing excesses on the earth, acting unjustly. Men! The excesses you commit will be of harm only to yourselves, (Enjoy, if you will) the fleeting pleasure of this world; in me end you shall all return to Us, and then We shall tell you what you did. 23 The life of the world is like the water which We send down from the sky, and which is absorbed by the plants of the earth, from which men and cattle eat. But when the earth has taken on its finest appearance, and looks beautiful, and its people think they have it under their control, then by day or by night, Our command comes to it and We convert it into a field of stubble, as if nothing had existed there the day before. Thus We make plain Our revelations for those who reflect. 24 God invites you to mansions of peace, and guides whosoever He will to the path that is straight 25 ۞ Unto those who have done good is the good (reward) and an increase: neither darkness nor abjection will cover their faces. These are the fellows of the Garden: therein they will be abiders. 26 And for those who have earned evil deeds the recompense of an evil deed shall be the like of it; abasement shall overspread them, neither have they any defender from God, as if their faces were covered with strips of night shadowy. Those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein dwelling forever. 27 And the Day whereon We shall gather them all together, then We shall say to those who did set partners in worship with Us: "Stop at your place! You and your partners (whom you had worshipped in the worldly life)." then We shall separate them, and their (Allah's so-called) partners shall say: "It was not us that you used to worship." 28 Therefore Allah is sufficient as a witness between us and you that we were quite unaware of your serving (us). 29 Thereupon everyone shall taste the recompense of his past deeds. All shall be sent back to Allah, their true Lord, and then all the falsehoods they had fabricated will have forsaken them. 30