۞ If Allah were to hasten on for men the ill (that they have earned) as they would hasten on the good, their respite would already have expired. But We suffer those who look not for the meeting with Us to wander blindly on in their contumacy. 11 And when affliction touches man, he calls upon Us, whether lying on his side or sitting or standing; but when We remove from him his affliction, he continues [in disobedience] as if he had never called upon Us to [remove] an affliction that touched him. Thus is made pleasing to the transgressors that which they have been doing 12 And indeed, We destroyed before your time [whole] generations when they [persistently] did evil although the apostles sent unto them brought them all evidence of the truth; for they refused to believe [them]. Thus do We requite people who are lost in sin. 13 Then We made you follow after them, generations after generations in the land, that We might see how you would work! 14 And when Our clear communications are recited to them, those who hope not for Our meeting say: Bring a Quran other than this or change it. Say: It does not beseem me that I should change it of myself; I follow naught but what is revealed to me; surely I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the punishment of a mighty day. 15 Say thou: had Allah so willed, I would not have rehearsed it unto you, nor would He have acquainted you therewith. Of a surety I have tarried among you a lifetime before it. Would ye not then reflect? 16 So who is more unjust than one who fabricates a lie concerning Allah and denies His signs? Indeed the guilty shall never prosper. 17 And they worship besides Allah things that hurt them not, nor profit them, and they say: "These are our intercessors with Allah." Say: "Do you inform Allah of that which He knows not in the heavens and on the earth?" Glorified and Exalted be He above all that which they associate as partners with Him! 18 Mankind was only one community, but then they differed, and had it not been for a prior word from your Lord, their differences would have been settled for them. 19 They say: 'Why was a sign not sent down upon the prophet from His Lord? Tell (such people): 'The realm of the Unseen belongs to Allah. Wait, then; I shall wait along with you. 20