Say: "I invoke my Sustainer alone, for I do not ascribe divinity to anyone beside Him." 20 Say: "Neither is your loss within my power nor bringing you to guidance." 21 Say: 'None shall protect me from Allah, and other than Him, I will find no refuge, 22 if I should fail to convey [to the world whatever illumination comes to me] from God and His messages." Now as for him who rebels against God and His Apostle - verily, the fire of hell awaits him, therein to abide beyond the count of time. 23 Till, when they see that which they are promised, then they will know who it is that is weaker concerning helpers and less important concerning numbers. 24 Say: "I do not know whether that [doom] of which you were forewarned is near, or whether my Sustainer has set for it a distant term." 25 He knows the unseen and He does not allow anyone to know His secrets except those of His Messengers whom He chooses. 26 Except whom He has approved of messengers, and indeed, He sends before each messenger and behind him observers 27 so as to make manifest that it is indeed [but] their Sustainer's messages that these [apostles] deliver: for it is He who encompasses [with His knowledge] all that they have [to say,] just as He takes count, one by one, of everything [that exists]. 28