۞ SAY: "[Thus speaks God:] 'O you servants of Mine who have transgressed against your own selves! Despair not of God's mercy: behold, God forgives all sins - for, verily, He alone is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace!'" 53 Turn in repentance to your Lord and submit to His will before you are afflicted with the torment after which you can receive no help. 54 And follow the best that has been revealed to you from your Lord before there comes to you the punishment all of a sudden while you do not even perceive; 55 So that no soul may say, “Alas! The failures that I committed regarding Allah – and indeed I used to mock!” 56 Or (lest) he should say: "If only Allah had guided me, I should indeed have been among the Muttaqun (pious and righteous persons - see V. 2:2)." 57 Or should say, when it seeth the doom: Oh, that I had but a second chance that I might be among the righteous! 58 God will reply to the soul, "My revelations had certainly come to you but you rejected them. You were puffed-up with pride and you became an unbeliever". 59 And upon the Day of Resurrection thou shalt see those who lied against God, their faces blackened; is there not in Gehenna a lodging for those that are proud? 60 But as for the God-fearing, Allah will deliver them on account of their achievements: no harm shall visit them nor shall they grieve. 61 God is the Creator of all things, He has charge of everything; 62 His are the keys [to the mysteries] of the heavens and the earth: and they who are bent on denying the truth of God's messages - it is they, they, who are the losers! 63