۞ Had God hastened the punishment of men as He hastens the good, the end of their term of life would already have been reached. We leave those who do not hope to meet Us groping along in their arrogance. 11 For [thus it is:] when affliction befalls man, he cries out unto Us, whether he be lying on his side or sitting or standing; but as soon as We have freed him of his affliction, he goes on as though he had never invoked Us to save him from the affliction that befell him! Thus do their own doings seem goodly unto those who waste their own selves. 12 And indeed, before your time We destroyed [whole] generations when they [persistently] did evil; their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they would not believe. Thus We requite the guilty. 13 Now We have appointed you as their successors in the earth to see how you act. 14 And when Our clear verses are recited to them, the people who do not expect to meet Us say, “Bring a Qur’an other than this one, or change it”; say (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him), “I do not have the right to change it on my own; I only follow what is divinely revealed to me; if I were to disobey my Lord*, then I fear the punishment of the Great Day (of Resurrection). (* Which is impossible.) 15 Say, “Had Allah willed I would not have recited it to you nor would He have made it known to you; so before this* I have spent an age among you; so do you not have sense?” (* Before Allah’s command to recite the Qur’an to you.) 16 Who is then more unjust than who forges a lie against Allah or (who) gives the lie to His communications? Surely the guilty shall not be successful. 17 And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, "These are our intercessors with Allah." Say, "Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?" Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him 18 And people are naught but a single nation, so they disagree; and had not a word already gone forth from your Lord, the matter would have certainly been decided between them in respect of that concerning which they disagree. 19 And they will say: If only a portent were sent down upon him from his Lord! Then say, (O Muhammad): The Unseen belongeth to Allah. So wait! Lo! I am waiting with you. 20