Ruku’ 174 ركوع ١٧٤

No sooner do We let people taste some mercy after some hardship has afflicted them, than they begin to scheme against Our revelations. Say, ‘God schemes even faster.’ Our messengers-angels record all your scheming.

It is He who enables you to travel on land and sea until, when you are sailing on ships and rejoicing in the favouring wind, a storm arrives: waves come at those on board from all sides and they feel there is no escape. Then they pray to God, professing sincere devotion to Him, ‘If You save us from this we shall be truly thankful.’

Yet no sooner does He save them than, back on land, they behave outrageously against all that is right. People! Your outrageous behaviour only works against yourselves. Take your little enjoyment in this present life; in the end you will return to Us and We shall confront you with everything you have done.

The life of this world is like this: rain that We send down from the sky is absorbed by the plants of the earth, from which humans and animals eat. But when the earth has taken on its finest appearance, and adorns itself, and its people think they have power over it, then the fate We commanded comes to it, by night or by day, and We reduce it to stubble, as if it had not flourished just the day before. This is the way We explain the revelations for those who reflect.

But God invites [everyone] to the Home of Peace, and guides whoever He will to a straight path.

Those who did well will have the best reward and more besides. Neither darkness nor shame will cover their faces: these are the companions in Paradise, and there they will remain.

As for those who did evil, each evil deed will be requited by its equal and humiliation will cover them- no one will protect them against God- as though their faces were covered with veils cut from the darkness of the night. These are the inmates of the Fire, and there they shall remain.

On the Day We gather them all together, We shall say to those who associate partners with God, ‘Stay in your place, you and your partner-gods.’ Then We shall separate them, and their partner-gods will say, ‘It was not us you worshipped-

God is witness enough between us and you- we had no idea that you worshipped us.’

Every soul will realize, then and there, what it did in the past. They will be returned to God, their rightful Lord, and their invented [gods] will desert them.