This is a Book which We have revealed as a blessing, follow it and fear your Lord, so that you may receive mercy, 155 [It has been given to you] lest you say: "Only unto two groups of people, [both of them] before our time, has a divine writ been bestowed from on high and we were indeed unaware of their teachings"; 156 or lest you say, 'If the Book had been sent down upon us, we had surely been more rightly guided than they.' Yet indeed a clear sign has come to you from your Lord, and a guidance and a mercy; and who does greater evil than he who cries lies to God's signs, and turns away from them? We shall surely recompense those who turn away from Our signs with an evil chastisement for their turning away. 157 What are the people waiting for? For the angels to come down, or your Lord to appear, or some signs from your Lord? The day when certain signs appear from your Lord, the embracing of faith shall not be of any avail to one who did not come to belief at first, or who did not perform good deeds by virtue of his faith. Tell them: "Wait on, we are waiting too (for the good and evil to become distinct)." 158 As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did. 159 He who brings a good deed shall have tenfold of its like, but he who brings a sin shall be recompensed only for its like. None shall be wronged. 160 Say: Lo! As for me, my Lord hath guided me unto a straight path, a right religion, the community of Abraham, the upright, who was no idolater. 161 Tell them: "My service and sacrifice, my life and my death, are all of them for God, the creator and Lord of all the worlds. 162 in whose divinity none has a share: for thus have I been bidden - and I shall [always] be foremost among those who surrender themselves unto Him." 163 Say: Shall I seek another than Allah for Lord, when He is Lord of all things? Each soul earneth only on its own account, nor doth any laden bear another's load. Then unto your Lord is your return and He will tell you that wherein ye differed. 164 It is He who has made you successors [of others] on the earth and has exalted some of you over the others in degrees of rank, so that He may test you by that which He has given you. Your Lord is swift in punishment; yet surely He is forgiving, and merciful. 165