۞ Were Allah to send misfortune to the people as quickly as they hasten for the good*, their appointed term would have been finished; so We leave those who do not expect to meet Us, to wander in their rebellion. (* The way they wish the good to reach them quickly.) 11 And (such is man that) when an affliction befalls him, he cries out to Us, reclining and sitting and standing. But no sooner than We have removed his affliction, he passes on as though he had never cried out to Us to remove his affliction. Thus it is that the misdeeds of the transgressors are made fair-seeming to them. 12 And indeed We destroyed several generations before you when they crossed the limits – and their respective Noble Messengers came to them with clear proofs, but they were not such as would believe; this is how We reward the guilty. 13 Then We made you successors in the land after them so that We may observe how you will do. 14 And whenever Our clear revelations are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say: 'Bring us a Qur'an other than this one, or at least make changes in it. Tell them (O Muhammad): 'It is not for me to change it of my accord. I only follow what is revealed to me. Were I to disobey my Lord, I fear the chastisement of an Awesome Day. 15 Tell them: 'Had Allah so willed, I would not have recited the Qur'an to you, nor would Allah have informed you of it. I have spent a lifetime among you before this. Do you, then, not use your reason? 16 And who does greater evil than he who forges against God a lie, or cries lies to His signs? Surely the sinners do not prosper. 17 And they serve beside Allah what can neither harm them nor profit them, and they say: These are our intercessors with Allah. Say: Do you (presume to) inform Allah of what He knows not in the heavens and the earth? Glory be to Him, and supremely exalted is He above what they set up (with Him). 18 And mankind were not but a single ccmmunity then they differed. And had not a word from thy Lord gone forth, it would have been decreed between them in respect of that wherein they differ. 19 They say: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" Say: "The Unseen is only for Allah (to know), then wait ye: I too will wait with you." 20