The unbelievers said to their apostles: "We shall drive you out of our land, or else you come back to our fold." Their Lord then communicated to them: "We shall annihilate these wicked people, 13 and will then cause you to settle in the land as their successors. That is the reward for him who fears to stand for reckoning and holds My threat in awe." 14 And they requested victory from Allah, and disappointed, [therefore], was every obstinate tyrant. 15 beyond him Gehenna, and he is given to drink of oozing pus, 16 which he gulps and can scarcely swallow. Death will come to him from every side, yet he cannot die, and yet to come is a dreadful punishment. 17 [This, then, is] the parable of those who are bent on denying their Sustainer: all their works are as ashes which the wind blows about fiercely on a stormy day: [in the life to come,] they cannot achieve any benefit whatever from all [the good] that they may have wrought: for this [denial of God] is indeed the farthest one can go astray. 18 Hast thou not seen that Allah hath created the heavens and the earth with truth? If He will, He can remove you and bring (in) some new creation; 19 Nor is that for Allah any great matter. 20 And all [mankind] will appear before God [on the Day of Judgment]; and then the weak will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: "Behold, We were but your followers: can you, then, relieve us of something of God's chastisement?" [And the others] will answer: "If God would but show us the way [to salvation,] we would indeed guide you [towards it]. It is [now] all one, as far as we are concerned, whether we grieve impatiently or endure [our lot] with patience: there is no escape for us!" 21