Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)

[lying] on his side, sitting, or standing;
but when We remove his distress,
he passes on as if he had never supplicated Us
concerning the distress that had befallen him.
To the profligate is thus presented as decorous
what they have been doing.
13 Certainly We destroyed [several] generations
before you
when they perpetrated wrongs:
their apostles brought them manifest proofs,
but they would not have faith.
Thus do We requite the guilty lot.
14 Then We made you successors on the earth
after them
that We may observe how you will act.
15 When Our manifest signs are recited to them,
those who do not expect to encounter Us say,
‘Bring a Qur’ān other than this,
or alter it.’
Say, ‘I may not alter it
of my own accord.
I follow only what is revealed to me.
Indeed should I disobey my Lord, I fear
the punishment of a tremendous day.’
16 Say, ‘Had Allah [so] wished,
I would not have recited it to you,
nor would He have made it known to you,
for I have dwelled among you for a lifetime before it.
Do you not apply reason?’
17 So who is a greater wrongdoer than him