When We let the people taste mercy after hardship has visited them, lo, they have a device concerning Our signs. Say: 'God is swifter at devising; surely Our messengers are writing down what you are devising.' 21 He it is who enables you to travel on land and sea. And [behold what happens] when you go to sea in ships: [they go to sea in ships,] and they sail on in them in a favourable wind, and they rejoice thereat until there comes upon them a tempest, and waves surge towards them from all sides, so that they believe themselves to be encompassed [by death; and then] they call unto God, [at that moment] sincere in their faith in Him alone, "If Thou wilt but save us from this, we shall most certainly be among the grateful!" 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 This present life is like the water We send down from the sky. The plants of the earth mix with it and from it mankind and cattle eat; then when the earth has become lush and adorned, its inhabitants think they have power over it, Our command comes upon it by night or day, and We cause it to be stubble, just as though it had not flourished the day before. In this way We distinguish Our verses for those 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 goodness and more, and no blot or disgrace will cover their faces. They are people of Paradise, where they will abide for ever. 26 And (as for) those who have earned evil, the punishment of an evil is the like of it, and abasement shall come upon them-- they shall have none to protect them from Allah-- as if their faces had been covered with slices of the dense darkness of night; these are the inmates of the fire; in it they shall abide. 27 For, one Day We shall gather them all together, and then We shall say unto those who [in their lifetime] ascribed divinity to aught but God, "Stand where you are, you and those [beings and powers] to whom you were wont to ascribe a share in God's divinity! - for by then We shall have [visibly] separated them from one another. And the beings to whom they had ascribed a share in God's divinity will say [to those who had worshipped them,] "It was not us that you were wont to worship; 28 God is a sufficient witness between us and you; assuredly we were heedless of your service.' 29 Therein every soul shall prove that which it sent before, and they shall be brought back to Allah, their rightful Owner, and there shall stray from them that which they were wont to fabricate. 30