Verily, in the creation of the heavens and of the earth, and the succession of night and day; and in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man; and in the waters which God sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless, and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon; and in the change of the winds, and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth: [in all this] there are messages indeed for people who use their reason. 164 Yet there be men who take to themselves compeers apart from God, loving them as God is loved; but those that believe love God more ardently. O if the evildoers might see, when they see the chastisement, that the power altogether belongs to God, and that God is terrible in chastisement, 165 When those who were followed shall quit themselves of those who followed, and they all shall behold the torment, and sundered between them shall be the cords. 166 The followers will say, "Had we had the chance we also would have denounced our leaders." That is how God will show them their regrettable deeds. They will not be able to escape from hell fire. 167