Blessed is He who, if He willed, could have made for you [something] better than that - gardens beneath which rivers flow - and could make for you palaces. 10 Nay, but they cry lies to the Hour; and We have prepared for him who cries lies to the Hour a Blaze. 11 When it sees them from a far place, they shall hear its bubbling and sighing. 12 And when they are cast, bound together into a constricted place therein, they will plead for destruction there and then! 13 "Do not ask for one death but many deaths on this day." 14 Say: 'Is that better, or the Garden of Eternity which the cautious have been promised? It is their recompense and their arrival' 15 They shall have therein what they desire abiding (in it); it is a promise which it is proper to be prayed for from your Lord. 16 And [mention] the Day He will gather them and that which they worship besides Allah and will say, "Did you mislead these, My servants, or did they [themselves] stray from the way?" 17 They will say; hallowed be Thou! it behoved us not that we should take beside Thee any patron, but Thou allowedest them and their fathers enjoyment until they forgat the admonition, and they were a people doomed. 18 [Thereupon God will say:] "And now, they [whom you regarded as divine] have given the lie to all your [past] assertions, and you can neither ward off [your punishment] nor obtain any succour! For, whoever of you has committed [such] evil, him shall We cause to taste great suffering!" 19 We never sent before thee any messengers but lo! they verily ate food and walked in the markets. And We have appointed some of you a test for others: Will ye be steadfast? And thy Lord is ever Seer. 20