And if we defer their chastisement to some definite time, they will exclaim, "What keepeth it back?" What! will it not come upon them on a day when there shall be none to avert it from them? And that at which they scoffed shall enclose them in on every side. And if we cause man to taste our mercy, and then deprive him of it, verily, he is despairing, ungrateful. And if after trouble hath befallen him we cause him to taste our favour, he will surely exclaim, "The evils are passed away from me." Verily, he is joyous, boastful. Except those who endure with patience and do the things that are right: these doth pardon await and a great reward. Perhaps thou wilt suppress a part of what hath been revealed to thee, and wilt be distress at heart lest they say, "If a treasure be not sent down to him, or an angel come with him. . . ." But thou art only a warner, and God hath all things in his charge. If they shall say, "The Koran is his own device," SAY: Then bring ten Suras like it5 of your devising, and call whom ye can to your aid beside God, if ye are men of truth. But if they answer you not, then know that it hath been sent down to you in the wisdom of God only, and that there is no God but He. Are ye then Muslims? Those who choose this present life and its braveries, we will recompense for their works therein: they shall have nothing less therein than their deserts. These are they for whom there is nothing in the next world but the Fire: all that they have wrought in this life shall come to nought, and vain shall be all their doings. With such can they be compared who rest upon clear proofs from their Lord? to whom a witness from him reciteth the Koran, and who is preceded by the Book of Moses, a guide and mercy? These have faith in it: but the partisans of idolatry, who believe not in it, are menaced with the fire! Have thou no doubts about that Book, for it is the very truth from thy Lord. But most men will not believe. Who is guilty of a greater injustice than he who inventeth a lie concerning God? They shall be set before their Lord, and the witnesses shall say, "These are they who made their Lord a liar." Shall not the malison of God be on these unjust doers, Who pervert others from the way of God, and seek to make it crooked, and believe not in a life to come? God's power on earth they shall not weaken; and beside God they have no protector! Doubled shall be their punishment! They were not able to hearken, and they could not see. These are they who have lost their own souls, and the deities of their own devising have vanished from them: There is no doubt but that in the next world they shall be the lost ones. But they who shall have believed and done the things that are right, and humbled them before their Lord, shall be the inmates of Paradise; therein shall they abide for ever. These two sorts of persons resemble the blind and deaf, and the seeing and hearing: shall these be compared as alike? Ah! do ye not comprehend?