So will one whose misdeeds are made seeming good to him – so he deems them good – be ever equal to the one who is upon guidance? Therefore indeed Allah sends astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills; so may not your life be lost in despairing after them; Allah knows their deeds very well. 8 And it is Allah who sends the winds, and they stir the clouds, and We drive them to a dead land and give life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness. Thus is the resurrection. 9 Whoever desires honor [through power] - then to Allah belongs all honor. To Him ascends good speech, and righteous work raises it. But they who plot evil deeds will have a severe punishment, and the plotting of those - it will perish. 10 Allah created you from dust, then from a drop of sperm, then He made you into pairs. No female conceives, nor delivers (a child) except with His knowledge. None is given a long life nor is any diminished in his life but it is written in a Book. Surely that is quite easy for Allah. 11 [Easy is it for Him to create likeness and variety:] thus, the two great bodies of water [on earth] are not alike the one sweet, thirst-allaying, pleasant to drink, and the other salty and bitter: and yet, from either of them do you eat fresh meat, and [from either] you take gems which you may wear; and on either thou canst see ships ploughing through the waves, so that you might [be able to] go forth in quest of some of His bounty, and thus have cause to be grateful. 12 He causes the night to phase into the day and the day into the night, and He has subjected the sun and the moon, each running its course to an appointed term. That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs the Kingdom; but those whom you call upon, apart from Allah, possess not so much as the skin of a date-stone. 13 They will not listen to your prayers if you pray to them. Even if they would listen, they would not be able to answer you. On the Day of Judgment they will reject your worship of them. Not even an expert reporter can tell you the truth in the way that God can do. 14