Quran — Page 349

[And God will say:] “Were not My messages conveyed unto you, and were you [not] wont to give them the lie?”

They will exclaim: “O our Sustainer! Our bad luck has overwhelmed us, and so we went astray!

O our Sustainer! Cause us to come out of this [suffering] - and then, if ever We revert [to sinning], may we truly be [deemed] evildoers!”

[But] He will say: “Away with you into this [ignominy]! And speak no more unto Me!

“Behold, there were among My servants such as would pray, ‘O our Sustainer! We have come to believe [in Thee]; forgive, then, our sins and bestow Thy mercy on us: for Thou art the truest bestower of mercy!’

- but you made them a target of your derision to the point where it made you forget all remembrance of Me; and you went on and on laugh­ing at them.

[But,] behold, today I have rewarded them for their patience in adversity: verily, it is they, they who have achieved a triumph!”

[And] He will ask [the doomed]: “What number of years have you spent on earth?”

They will answer: ‘We have spent there a day, or part of a day; but ask those who [are able to] count [time] …”

[Whereupon] He will say: “You have spent there but a short while: had you but known [how short it was to be]!

Did you, then, think that We created you in mere idle play, and that you would not have to return to Us?”

[KNOW,] then, [that] God is sublimely exalted, the Ultimate Sovereign, the Ultimate Truth: there is no deity save Him, the Sustainer, in bountiful almightiness enthroned!

Hence, he who invokes, side by side with God, any other deity [- a deity] for whose existence he has no evidence - shall but find his reckoning with his Sustainer: [and,] verily, such deniers of the truth will never attain to a happy state!

Hence, [O believer,] say: “O my Sustainer! Grant [me] forgiveness and bestow Thy mercy [upon me]: for Thou art the truest bestower of mercy!”