And those who disbelieved said unto their messengers: Verily we will drive you out from our land, unless ye return to our religion. Then their Lord inspired them, (saying): Verily we shall destroy the wrong-doers, 13 And establish you in their place. This is for him who fears My station, and dreads My commination." 14 And they sought help (from their Lord) and every froward potentate was bought to naught; 15 with hell awaiting him; and he shall be made to drink of the water of most bitter distress, 16 gulping it [unceasingly,] little by little, and yet hardly able to swallow it. And death will beset him from every quarter - but he shall not die: for [yet more] severe suffering lies ahead of him. 17 [This, then, is] the parable of those who are bent on denying their Sustainer: all their works are as ashes which the wind blows about fiercely on a stormy day: [in the life to come,] they cannot achieve any benefit whatever from all [the good] that they may have wrought: for this [denial of God] is indeed the farthest one can go astray. 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 And this is not difficult for Allah. 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