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35:40 Fatir 332
the deniers will only be increased looking for the way the previous
by their denial of the truth, it will peoples [sinners] were dealt
only increase their loss. a with? You will never find any
40 Say, ‘Have you ever change in the ways of God; nor
considered your associate gods will you ever find God’s decree
44
whom you call on besides God? averted. Have they not travelled
Show me what it is that they around the earth and seen the fate
have created on earth. Or have of those who preceded them?
they a share in the creation of the And they were far superior to
heavens?’ Or have We given them in strength. Nothing in the
them a book so that they may act heavens or the earth can ever
on evidence from it? Indeed, the frustrate God’s [plans]. He is all-
wrongdoers’ promises to one knowing and all powerful.
another are nothing but deception. 45 If God were to take men to
41
Surely, God holds the heavens task for their misdeeds, He would
and the earth, lest they should not leave a single living creature
deviate [from their orbits]. Were on the surface of the earth; but
they to deviate, none could hold He grants them respite until an
them after Him. Surely, He is appointed time; and when their
forbearing and most forgiving. appointed time comes, then they
42 They swore their most will know that God is indeed
solemn oaths that if a warner observant of all His servants.
should ever come to them, they
would be better guided than any a In this verse, being given ‘the earth
other community. But when a to inherit’ (khalifah) means that ‘after
warner did come to them, it only the advent of the previous nations,
increased their aversion, 43 and you were settled on the earth in their
place’. It is the way of Almighty God
they behaved arrogantly in the
that He allows a nation the opportunity
land and plotted evil. But the to settle and make progress on the earth.
plotting of evil only rebounds on Then, when it proves itself incapable,
those who plot. Are they but He replaces it by another nation.