Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
Do We requite [so] anyone except ingrates?
18 We had placed between them
and the towns which We had blessed
hamlets prominent [from the main route],
and We had ordained the course through them:
‘Travel through them in safety, night and day.’
19 But they said, ‘Our Lord!
Make the stages between our journeys far apart,’
and they wronged themselves.
So We turned them into folktales
and caused them to disintegrate totally.
There are indeed signs in that
for every patient and grateful [servant].
20 Certainly Iblis had his conjecture come true about them.
So they followed him
— all except a part of the faithful.
21 He had no authority over them,
but that We may ascertain
those who believe in the Hereafter
from those who are in doubt about it,
and your Lord is watchful over all things.
22 Say, ‘Invoke them whom you claim [to be gods]
besides Allah!
They do not control [even] an atom’s weight
in the heavens or the earth,
nor have they any share in [either of] them,
nor is any of them 1 His supporter.’
23IntercessionisofnoavailwithHim
1 That is, the gods worshipped by the polytheists.
