24 Without saying, "If God wills." And remember your Lord if you forget, and say, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to nearer than this in integrity."
25 And they stayed in their cave for three hundred years, adding nine.
26 Say, "God knows best how long they stayed." His is the mystery of the heavens and the earth. By Him you see and hear. They have no guardian apart from Him, and He shares His Sovereignty with no one.
27 And recite what was revealed to you from the Book of your Lord. There is no changing His words, and you will find no refuge except in Him.
28 And content yourself with those who pray to their Lord morning and evening, desiring His Presence. And do not turn your eyes away from them, desiring the glitter of this world. And do not obey him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance-so he follows his own desires-and his priorities are confused.
29 And say, "The truth is from your Lord. Whoever wills-let him believe. And whoever wills-let him disbelieve". We have prepared for the unjust a Fire, whose curtains will hem them in. And when they cry for relief, they will be relieved with water like molten brass, which scalds the faces. What a miserable drink, and what a terrible place.
30 As for those who believe and lead a righteous life-We will not waste the reward of those who work righteousness.
31 These will have the Gardens of Eden, beneath which rivers flow. Reclining on comfortable furnishings, they will be adorned with bracelets of gold, and will wear green garments of silk and brocade. What a wonderful reward, and what an excellent resting-place.
32 And cite for them the parable of two men. To one of them We gave two gardens of vine, and We surrounded them with palms- trees, and We placed between them crops.
33 Both gardens produced their harvest in full, and suffered no loss. And We made a river flow through them.
34 And thus he had abundant fruits. He said to his friend, as he conversed with him, "I am wealthier than you, and greater in manpower."
35 And he entered his garden, wronging himself. He said, "I do not think this will ever perish."
36 "And I do not think the Hour is coming. And even if I am returned to my Lord, I will find something better than this in return."
37 His friend said to him, as he conversed with him, "Are you being ungrateful to Him who created you from dust, then from a sperm- drop, then evolved you into a man?
38 But as for me, He is God, my Lord, and I never associate with my Lord anyone.
39 When you entered your garden, why did you not say, "As God wills; there is no power except through God"? Although you see me inferior to you in wealth and children.
40 Perhaps my Lord will give me something better than your garden, and release upon it thunderbolts from the sky, so it becomes barren waste.
41 Or its water will sink into the ground, and you will be unable to draw it."
42 And ruin closed in on his crops, and so he began wringing his hands over what he had invested in it, as it lays fallen upon its trellises. And he was saying, "I wish I never associated anyone with my Lord."
43 He had no faction to help him besides God, and he was helpless.
44 That is because authority belongs to God, the True. He is Best in rewarding, and Best in requiting.
45 And cite for them the parable of the present life: it is like water that We send down from the sky; the plants of the earth absorb it; but then it becomes debris, scattered by the wind. God has absolute power over everything.
46 Wealth and children are the adornments of the present life. But the things that last, the virtuous deeds, are better with your Lord for reward, and better for hope.
47 On the Day when We set the mountains in motion; and you see the earth emerging; and We gather them together, and leave none of them behind.
48 They will be presented before your Lord in a row. "You have come to Us as We created you the first time. Although you claimed We would not set a meeting for you."
49 And the book will be placed, and you will see the sinners fearful of its contents. And they will say, "Woe to us! What is with this book that leaves nothing, small or big, but it has enumerated it?" They will find everything they had done present. Your Lord does not wrong anyone.
50 We said to the angels, "Bow down to Adam." So they bowed down, except for Satan. He was of the jinn, and he defied the command of his Lord. Will you take him and his offspring as lords instead of Me, when they are an enemy to you? Evil is the exchange for the wrongdoers.
51 I did not call them to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor their own creation; and I do not take the misleaders for assistants.
52 On the Day when He will say, "Call on My partners whom you have claimed." They will call on them, but they will not answer them. And We will place between them a barrier.
53 And the sinners will see the Fire, and will realize that they will tumble into it. They will find no deliverance from it.
54 We have elaborated in this Quran for the people every kind of example, but the human being is a most argumentative being.
55 What prevented people from accepting faith, when guidance has come to them, and from seeking their Lord's forgiveness? Unless they are waiting for the precedent of the ancients to befall them, or to have the punishment come upon them face to face.
56 We send the messengers only as deliverers of good news and warners. Those who disbelieve argue with false argument, in order to defeat the truth thereby. They take My Verses, and the warnings, for a joke.
57 Who does greater wrong than he, who, when reminded of his Lord's revelations, turns away from them, and forgets what his hands have put forward? We have placed coverings over their hearts, lest they understand it, and heaviness in their ears. And if you call them to guidance, they will not be guided, ever.
58 Your Lord is the Forgiver, Possessor of Mercy. Were He to call them to account for what they have earned, He would have hastened the punishment for them. But they have an appointment from which they will find no escape.
59 And these towns-We destroyed them when they committed injustices, and We set for their destruction an appointed time.
60 Recall when Moses said to his servant, "I will not give up until I reach the junction of the two rivers, even if it takes me years."
61 Then, when they reached the junction between them, they forgot about their fish. It found its way into the river, slipping away.
62 When they went further, he said to his servant, "Bring us our lunch; we were exposed in our travel to much fatigue."
63 He said, "Do you remember when we rested by the rock? I forgot about the fish. It was only the devil who made me forget it. And so it found its way to the river, amazingly."
64 He said, "This is what we were seeking." And so they turned back retracing their steps.
65 Then they came upon a servant of Ours, whom We had blessed with mercy from Us, and had taught him knowledge from Our Own.
66 Moses said to him, "May I follow you, so that you may teach me some of the guidance you were taught?"
67 He said, "You will not be able to endure with me.
68 And how will you endure what you have no knowledge of?"
69 He said, "You will find me, God willing, patient; and I will not disobey you in any order of yours."
70 He said, "If you follow me, do not ask me about anything, until I myself make mention of it to you."
71 So they set out. Until, when they had boarded the boat, he holed it. He said, "Did you hole it, to drown its