People pray as earnestly to gain evil as one should to gain virtue. But people are hasty. 11 We have made the night and the day as two signs. We blotted out the sign of night and made the sign of the day illuminating, so that you may seek the bounty of your Lord and learn to compute the seasons and the years. We have set everything forth in detail. 12 And every human being's destiny have We tied to his neck; and on the Day of Resurrection We shall bring forth for him a record which he will find wide open; 13 Read thine book; sufficeth today thy soul against thee as a reckoner. 14 Whoever chooses to follow the right path, follows it but for his own good; and whoever goes astray, goes but astray to his own hurt; and no bearer of burdens shall be made to bear another's burden. Moreover, We would never chastise [any community for the wrong they may do] ere We have sent an apostle [to them]. 15 When We decide to destroy a town We command the affluent among them, whereupon they commit sins in it, then the decree (of chastisement) becomes due against them and thereafter We destroy that town utterly. 16 How many generations have We destroyed since Noah! And Allah sufficeth as Knower and Beholder of the sins of His slaves. 17 We give whatever We will to whoever desires immediate gains; but then We have prepared Hell for him which he will enter, disgraced and rejected. 18 And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it, with the necessary effort due for it (i.e. do righteous deeds of Allah's Obedience) while he is a believer (in the Oneness of Allah Islamic Monotheism), then such are the ones whose striving shall be appreciated, thanked and rewarded (by Allah). 19 All do We aid-- these as well as those-- out of the bounty of your Lord, and the bounty of your Lord is not confined. 20 See how We prefer one of them above another, and verily the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in preferment. 21 Set not up with Allah any other god (O man) lest thou sit down reproved, forsaken. 22