When the decree of God is issued, satan will say, "God's promise to you was true, but I, too, made a promise to you and disregarded it. I had no authority over you. I just called you and you answered. Do not blame me but blame yourselves. I cannot help you and you cannot help me. I did not agree with your belief that I was equal to God." The unjust will face a painful punishment. 22 And those who believed and did righteous deeds will be admitted to gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding eternally therein by permission of their Lord; and their greeting therein will be, "Peace!" 23 Do you not see how Allah has given the example of a good word? It is like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and whose branches reach the sky, 24 Bearing fruit at all times by the command of its Lord; and Allah illustrates examples for people so that they may understand. 25 And the likeness of a corrupt word is as a corrupt tree -- uprooted from the earth, having no stablishment. 26 [Thus,] God grants firmness unto those who have attained to faith through the word that is unshakably true in the life of this world as well as in the life to come; but the wrongdoers He lets go astray: for God does whatever He wills. 27