Those who disbelieved said to their Messengers: 'Return to our faith or we will banish you from our land' But Allah revealed to them: 'We shall destroy the harmdoers 13 and We will surely make you to dwell in the land after them -- that, for him who fears My station and fears My threat.' 14 They sought a judgment; then was disappointed every froward tyrant -- 15 beyond him Gehenna, and he is given to drink of oozing pus, 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 God has created the heavens and the earth for a purpose? He can eliminate you if He wills and bring into being a new creation: 19 nor is this difficult for God. 20 And all [mankind] will appear before God [on the Day of Judgment]; and then the weak will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: "Behold, We were but your followers: can you, then, relieve us of something of God's chastisement?" [And the others] will answer: "If God would but show us the way [to salvation,] we would indeed guide you [towards it]. It is [now] all one, as far as we are concerned, whether we grieve impatiently or endure [our lot] with patience: there is no escape for us!" 21