The unbelievers said to their Messengers, 'We will assuredly expel you from our land, or you will surely return into our creed.' Then did their Lord reveal unto them: 'We will surely destroy the evildoers, 13 and most certainly shall We cause you to dwell on earth [long] after they have passed away: this is [My promise] unto all who stand in awe of My presence, and stand in awe of My warning!" 14 And they asked for judgment and every insolent opposer was disappointed: 15 with hell awaiting him; and he shall be made to drink of the water of most bitter distress, 16 he will sip and will not find it easy to swallow it. Death will approach him from every quarter, yet he will not die. More intense suffering will lie ahead of him. 17 The likeness of those who disbelieve in their Lord: their works are like ashes upon which the wind bloweth hard on a stormy day: they shall not be able to get aught of that which they have earned. That! that is the straying far-off 18 Do you not see that Allah created the heavens and the earth in Truth? Were He to will, He could take you away and bring a new creation. 19 Nor is that for Allah any great matter. 20 Then all of them will appear exposed before Allah, and the weak ones will say to the haughty ones: "We merely followed you. Will you, then, protect us from Allah's chastisement?" They will say: "Had Allah shown us the Way to our salvation, we would surely have also guided you. Now it is all the same whether we cry or suffer patiently, we have no escape." 21