(Muhammad), people have mocked the Messengers who lived before you. I gave a respite to the unbelievers (so that they would repent, but they did not). Then I struck them with a terrible retribution. 32 Is then He who watches over every soul and its actions [like any other]? Yet they ascribe partners to God. Say, "Name them! Or do you presume to inform Him of something on the earth of which He does not know? Or, is all this only your verbal assertion?" Indeed, their devices seem fair to those who deny the truth, and they are kept back from the right path. There can be no guide for those whom God lets go astray. 33 For such, there is suffering in the life of this world; but, truly, [their] suffering in the life to come will be harder still, and they will have none to shield them from God. 34 ۞ And such will be the Paradise promised to the God-fearing: rivers will flow beneath it, its fruits will be eternal, and so will be its blissful shade. That is the ultimate destiny of the God-fearing while Fire is the destiny of the unbelievers. 35 Those to whom We have given the Book rejoice at what hath been revealed unto thee: but there are among the clans those who reject a part thereof. Say: "I am commanded to worship Allah, and not to join partners with Him. Unto Him do I call, and unto Him is my return." 36 Thus, then, have We bestowed from on high this [divine writ] as an ordinance in the Arabic tongue. And indeed, if thou shouldst defer to men's likes and dislikes after all the [divine] knowledge that has come unto thee, thou wouldst have none to protect thee from God, and none to shield thee [from Him]. 37