He propounds unto you a parable drawn from your own life: Would you [agree to] have some of those whom your right hands possess as [full-fledged] partners in whatever We may have bestowed upon you as sustenance, so that you [and they] would have equal shares in it, and you would fear [to make use of it without consulting] them, just as you might fear [the more powerful of] your equals? Thus clearly do We spell out these messages unto people who use their reason. 28 No, the wrongdoers follow their own desires without knowledge. And who can guide those whom Allah has led astray? There shall be none to help them. 29 Therefore set your attention for obeying Allah, devoted solely to Him; the foundation set by Allah, upon which He created man; do not change what Allah has created; this is the proper religion – but most people do not know. 30 ۞ Turning to Him, and be careful of (your duty to) Him and keep up prayer and be not of the polytheists 31 [or] among those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects, each group delighting in but what they themselves hold [by way of tenets]. 32 When people face hardship, they begin praying to their Lord and turn in repentance to Him. When they receive mercy from Him, a group of them begin to consider things equal to God, 33 So as to be ungrateful for what We have given them; but enjoy yourselves (for a while), for you shall soon come to know. 34 Or, have We sent down upon them an authority so that it speaks of that which they associate with Him? 35 When people receive mercy, they are happy with it. However, when hardship befalls them because of their own deeds, they despair. 36 Do they not see that Allah enlarges the provision for whom He wills and straitens (it for whom He wills). Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who believe. 37 So give thou unto the kinsman his due and unto the needy and unto the wayfarer. That is best for those who seek Allah's countenance; and those: they are the blissful ones. 38 Whatever you pay as interest so that it may increase the wealth of people does not increase in the sight of Allah. As for the Zakah that you give, seeking with it Allah's good pleasure, that is multiplied manifold. 39 It is Allah Who created you, then bestowed upon you your sustenance, and He will cause you to die and then will bring you back to life. Can any of those whom you associate with Allah in His Divinity do any such thing! Glory be to Him and exalted be He above whatever they associate with Allah in His Divinity. 40