And when We give the people a taste of mercy after adversity has touched them, at once they conspire against Our verses. Say, "Allah is swifter in strategy." Indeed, Our messengers record that which you conspire 21 It is He Who transports you over the land and the sea; to the extent that when you are in ships – and the ships sail with them with a favourable breeze and they rejoice at it – a gust of strong wind reaches them and waves come to them from every side and they realise that they are surrounded, – thereupon they pray to Allah as His sincere bondmen that, “If You rescue us from this, we will surely be thankful.” 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 likeness of this present life is as water that We send down out of heaven, and the plants of the earth mingle with it whereof men and cattle eat, till, when the earth has taken on its glitter and has decked itself fair, and its inhabitants think they have power over it, Our command comes upon it by night or day, and We make it stubble, as though yesterday it flourished not. Even so We distinguish the signs for a people who reflect. 24 God invites you to mansions of peace, and guides whosoever He will to the path that is straight 25 ۞ For those who do good there is good reward and more besides; neither gloom nor humiliation shall cover their faces. They are the people of the Garden and in it they shall abide. 26 As for those who have earned evil deeds, evil shall be recompensed with its like. Abasement will cover them, they shall have none to defend them from Allah as though their faces were covered with parts of the blackness of night. Those, they are the companions of the Fire, in it they shall live for ever. 27 The day We shall gather them all together We shall say to the idolaters: "Take your stand with the compeers you worshipped as the equals of God." We shall then create a rift between them, and the compeers will say: "You did not worship us; 28 And sufficient is Allah as a witness between us and you that we were of your worship unaware." 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