When We let the people taste mercy after hardship has visited them, lo, they have a device concerning Our signs. Say: 'God is swifter at devising; surely Our messengers are writing down what you are devising.' 21 He it is who enableth you to travel by land and sea until when ye are in ships and they run away with them with a goodly wind and they rejoice thereat, there cometh upon them a tempestuous wind and there cometh unto them a billow from every side, and they imagine that they are encompassed therein, they cry unto Allah making their faith pure for Him: If Thou deliverest us from this we would surely be of those who are thankful. 22 Yet as soon as He has saved them from this [danger,] lo! they behave outrageously on earth, offending against all right! O men! All your outrageous deeds are bound to fall back upon your own selves! [You care only for] the enjoyment of life in this world: [but remember that] in the end unto Us you must return, whereupon We shall make you truly understand all that you were doing [in life]. 23 The likeness of this present life is as water that We send down out of heaven, and the plants of the earth mingle with it whereof men and cattle eat, till, when the earth has taken on its glitter and has decked itself fair, and its inhabitants think they have power over it, Our command comes upon it by night or day, and We make it stubble, as though yesterday it flourished not. Even so We distinguish the signs for a people who reflect. 24 God invites every one to the House of Peace and guides whomever He wants to the right path. 25 ۞ For those who have done good is the best (reward, i.e. Paradise) and even more (i.e. having the honour of glancing at the Countenance of Allah) Neither darkness nor dust nor any humiliating disgrace shall cover their faces. They are the dwellers of Paradise, they will abide therein forever. 26 As for those who have earned evil deeds, evil shall be recompensed with its like. Abasement will cover them, they shall have none to defend them from Allah as though their faces were covered with parts of the blackness of night. Those, they are the companions of the Fire, in it they shall live for ever. 27 The day We shall gather them all together We shall say to the idolaters: "Take your stand with the compeers you worshipped as the equals of God." We shall then create a rift between them, and the compeers will say: "You did not worship us; 28 God is Sufficient Witness for us that we were not aware of your worship". 29 There will every soul prove (the fruits of) the deeds it sent before: they will be brought back to Allah their rightful Lord, and their invented falsehoods will leave them in the lurch. 30