God gathers up the souls of those who die, and of those who do not die, in their sleep; then He keeps back those ordained for death, and sends the others back for an appointed term. Surely there are signs in this for those who reflect. 42 Or have they taken intercessors besides Allah? Say: what! even though they did not ever have control over anything, nor do they understand. 43 Proclaim, “To Allah only* belongs all the intercession! For Him only is the kingship of the heavens and the earth; and then it is towards you have to return.” (*Allah does not intercede – He gives the permission to intercede with Him, to whomever He wills.) 44 When Allah alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter contract with bitterness, but when deities apart from Allah are mentioned, they are filled with joy. 45 Say, "Lord, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, knower of the seen and unseen, it is You who will issue Your decree about the differences of Your servants." 46 Even if the sinners possessed whatever is in the heavens and the earth, and as much more, they would offer it to ransom themselves from the torment of the Day of Resurrection; yet what they did not even imagine would appear to them from God; 47 And the evils they earned appeared to them, and the thing they used to mock at descended upon them. 48 Now when hurt toucheth a man he crieth unto Us, and afterward when We have granted him a boon from Us, he saith: Only by force of knowledge I obtained it. Nay, but it is a test. But most of them know not. 49 Thus did the (generations) before them say! But all that they did was of no profit to them. 50 But the evils that they earned smote them; and such of these as do wrong, the evils that they earn will smite them; they cannot escape. 51 Do they not know that God grants abundant sustenance to anyone He wishes and gives sparingly to anyone He pleases? Surely there are signs in this for those who believe. 52