Lost indeed are they who consider it a lie that they will have to meet God - till the Last Hour suddenly comes upon them, [and] they cry, "Alas for us, that we disregarded it!" - for they shall bear on their backs the burden of their sins: oh, how evil the load with which they shall be burdened! 31 Naught is the life of the world save a pastime and a sport. Better far is the abode of the Hereafter for those who keep their duty (to Allah). Have ye then no sense? 32 We know that you, [O Muhammad], are saddened by what they say. And indeed, they do not call you untruthful, but it is the verses of Allah that the wrongdoers reject. 33 Other messengers have been denied before you, and they bore their rejection and persecution steadfastly, until Our help came to them. There is no one who can change the words of God. You have already received some account of those messengers. 34 And if their backsliding is hard unto thee, then seek out, if thou canst, an opening into the earth or a ladder to the heaven that thou mayst bring unto them a sign. And had Allah willed, He would have assembled them unto the guidance; wherefore be not thou of the ignorant. 35 ۞ Only they who listen can respond to the call of the Truth; as for the dead, Allah will raise them and then to Him they will be returned. 36 And they say: Why has not a sign been sent down to him from his Lord? Say: Surely Allah is able to send down a sign, but most of them do not know. 37 And there is not an animal on the earth nor a fowl that flieth with its two wings but are communities like unto you. And We have not been remiss in respect of aught in the Book: then unto their Lord they shall be gathered. 38 But those who deny Our verses are deaf and dumb within darknesses. Whomever Allah wills - He leaves astray; and whomever He wills - He puts him on a straight path. 39 Say: Can ye see yourselves, if the punishment of Allah come upon you or the Hour come upon you, (calling upon other than Allah)? Do ye then call (for help) to any other than Allah? (Answer that) if ye are truthful. 40 Nay, but it is Him alone that you will invoke - whereupon He may, if He so wills, remove that [ill] which caused you to call unto Him; and you will have forgotten all that to which you [now] ascribe divinity side by side with Him." 41