People pray as earnestly to gain evil as one should to gain virtue. But people are hasty. 11 We have appointed the night and the day as two signs; then We have blotted out the sign of the night, and made the sign of the day to see, and that you may seek bounty from your Lord, and that you may know the number of the years, and the reckoning; and everything We have distinguished very distinctly. 12 Every man's fate We have fastened on his own neck: On the Day of Judgment We shall bring out for him a scroll, which he will see spread open. 13 Read thine book; sufficeth today thy soul against thee as a reckoner. 14 Whosoever goeth right, it is only for (the good of) his own soul that he goeth right, and whosoever erreth, erreth only to its hurt. No laden soul can bear another's load, We never punish until we have sent a messenger. 15 When We decide to destroy a town We warn the rich ones therein who commit evil. Thus it becomes deserving to destruction and We destroy its very foundations. 16 How many generations have We destroyed since Noah! Your Lord suffices as One who is Aware of and sees the sins of His worshipers. 17 Whosoever desires this hasty world, We hasten for him therein what We will unto whomsoever We desire; then We appoint for him Gehenna wherein he shall roast, condemned and 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 See how We have bestowed more on some than on others; but verily the Hereafter is more in rank and gradation and more in excellence. 21 DO NOT set up any other deity side by side with God, lest thou find thyself disgraced and forsaken: 22