People pray as earnestly to gain evil as one should to gain virtue. But people are hasty. 11 And We created the night and the day as two signs – We therefore kept the sign of the night indistinct, and the sign of the day visible – so that you may seek the munificence of your Lord, and know the calculation of the years, and the accounting; and We have explained all things in detail, distinctively. 12 And We have fastened every man's deeds to his neck, and on the Day of Resurrection, We shall bring out for him a book which he will find wide open. 13 (It will be said to him): "Read your book. You yourself are sufficient as a reckoner against you this Day." 14 Whoever is guided is only guided for [the benefit of] his soul. And whoever errs only errs against it. And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. And never would We punish until We sent a messenger. 15 And when We will to destroy a township We send the commands to its prosperous people, thereupon they do not obey them, and so the Word is proved upon it – We therefore destroy and ruin it. 16 We have destroyed many generations after the time of Noah. Your Lord is All knowing and Well Aware of the sins of His servants. 17 Whoso desireth that (life) which hasteneth away, We hasten for him therein what We will for whom We please. And afterward We have appointed for him hell; he will endure the heat thereof, condemned, rejected. 18 And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it accordingly, and is a believer – so only their effort has borne fruit. 19 To all of these as well as those We shall provide the wherewithal of this life in the present world by dint of your Lord's Bounty; and from none shall the Bounty of your Lord be withheld. 20 Behold how We bestow [on earth] more bounty on some of them than on others: but [remember that] the life to come will be far higher in degree and far greater in merit and bounty. 21 "Do not set up another god with God, or you will remain disgraced and destitute. 22