People pray as earnestly to gain evil as one should to gain virtue. But people are hasty. 11 We appointed the night and the day as two signs. Then, We blotted out the sign of the night and made the sign of the day to see, so that you seek the bounty of your Lord and that you know the number of years and the reckoning. And We have clearly distinguished everything. 12 And every man -- We have fastened to him his bird of omen upon his neck; and We shall bring forth for him, on the Day of Resurrection, a book he shall find spread wide open. 13 Read your book; your own self is sufficient as a reckoner against you this day. 14 Whoever chooses to follow the right path, follows it for his own good; and whoever goes astray, goes astray at his own peril; no bearer of burdens shall bear the burdens of another. Nor do We punish until We have sent forth a messenger to forewarn them. 15 And when We would destroy a township We send commandment to its folk who live at ease, and afterward they commit abomination therein, and so the Word (of doom) hath effect for it, and we annihilate it with complete annihilation. 16 How many generations have We destroyed since Noah! And Allah sufficeth as Knower and Beholder of the sins of His slaves. 17 Whosoever desires this hasty world, We hasten for him therein what We will unto whomsoever We desire; then We appoint for him Gehenna wherein he shall roast, condemned and rejected. 18 And whoever desires the hereafter and strives for it as he ought to strive and he is a believer; (as for) these, their striving shall surely be accepted. 19 All [of them] - these as well as those - do We freely endow with some of thy Sustainer's gifts, since thy Sustainer's giving is never confined [to one kind of man]. 20 See how We prefer one of them above another, and verily the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in preferment. 21 Take not with Allah another object of worship; or thou (O man!) wilt sit in disgrace and destitution. 22