Allah knows the Unseen in the heavens and earth. He knows that which is in the innermost of the chests. 38 It is He who has made you each other's successors on earth. Whoever disbelieves, does so against his own self. The disbelief of the unbelievers will only increase the anger of their Lord and will only cause them greater loss. 39 Say to them (O Prophet): “Have you ever seen those of your associates upon whom you call apart from Allah? Show me what have they created in the earth? Or do they have any partnership (with Allah) in the heavens? Or have We given them a Book so that they have a clear proof (for associating others with Allah in His Divinity)?” Nay, what these wrong-doers promise each other is nothing but delusion. 40 ۞ It is Allah who holds the heavens and the earth lest they vanish. Should they vanish, none would hold them after Him. He is the Clement, the Forgiving. 41 As it is, they [who are averse to the truth often] swear by God with their most solemn oaths that if a warner should ever come to them, they would follow his guidance better than any of the communities [of old had followed the warner sent to them]: but now that a warner has come unto them, [his call] but increases their aversion, 42 On account of their arrogance in the land and their plotting of Evil, but the plotting of Evil will hem in only the authors thereof. Now are they but looking for the way the ancients were dealt with? But no change wilt thou find in Allah's way (of dealing): no turning off wilt thou find in Allah's way (of dealing). 43 Have they not journeyed in the land and seen how the end of those before them, who were far more powerful, came about? There is nothing in the heavens and the earth that can defeat (the law of) God. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. 44 If God should take men to task for what they have earned He would not leave upon the face of the earth one creature that crawls; but He is deferring them to a stated term. But when their term is come -- surely God sees His servants. 45