People pray as earnestly to gain evil as one should to gain virtue. But people are hasty. 11 We have appointed the night and the day as two signs; then We have blotted out the sign of the night, and made the sign of the day to see, and that you may seek bounty from your Lord, and that you may know the number of the years, and the reckoning; and everything We have distinguished very distinctly. 12 And We have made every man's actions to cling to his neck, and We will bring forth to him on the resurrection day a book which he will find wide open: 13 (It will be said to him:) "Read thine (own) record: Sufficient is thy soul this day to make out an account against thee." 14 Whosoever is guided, is only guided to his own gain, and whosoever goes astray, it is only to his own loss; no soul laden bears the load of another. We never chastise, until We send forth a Messenger. 15 When We decide to destroy a town We command the affluent among them, whereupon they commit sins in it, then the decree (of chastisement) becomes due against them and thereafter We destroy that town utterly. 16 Many a generation has been destroyed by Our command since Noah's time. Your Lord is well aware and fully observant of the sins of His servants. 17 We give whatever We will to whoever desires immediate gains; but then We have prepared Hell for him which he will enter, disgraced and rejected. 18 And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it accordingly, and is a believer – so only their effort has borne fruit. 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 Do not consider anything equal to God lest you will become despised and neglected. 22