S:  And wherefore did you not say when you entered your garden:  It is as Allah has pleased, there is no power save in Allah?  If you consider me to be inferior to you in wealth and children,

018.040 Y:  “It may be that my Lord will give me something better than thy garden, and that He will send on thy garden thunderbolts (by way of reckoning) from heaven, making it (but) slippery sand!-”

P:  Yet it may be that my Lord will give me better than thy garden, and will send on it a bolt from heaven, and some morning it will be a smooth hillside,

S:  Then maybe my Lord will give me what is better than your garden, and send on it a thunderbolt from heaven so that it shall become even ground without plant,

018.041 Y:  “Or the water of the garden will run off underground so that thou wilt never be able to find it.”

P:  Or some morning the water thereof will be lost in the earth so that thou canst not make search for it.

S:  Or its waters should sink down into the ground so that you are unable to find it.

018.042 Y:  So his fruits (and enjoyment) were encompassed (with ruin), and he remained twisting and turning his hands over what he had spent on his property, which had (now) tumbled to pieces to its very foundations, and he could only say, “Woe is me!  Would I had never ascribed partners to my Lord and Cherisher!”

P:  And his fruit was beset (with destruction).  Then began he to wring his hands for all that he had spent upon it, when (now) it was all ruined on its trellises, and to say:  Would that I had ascribed no partner to my Lord!

S:  And his wealth was destroyed; so he began to wring his hands for what he had spent on it, while it lay, having fallen down upon its roofs, and he said:  Ah me! would that I had not associated anyone with my Lord.

018.043 Y:  Nor had he numbers to help him against Allah, nor was he able to deliver himself.

P:  And he had no troop of men to help him as against Allah, nor could he save himself.

S:  And he had no host to help him besides Allah nor could he defend himself.

018.044 Y:  There, the (only) protection comes from Allah, the True One.  He is the Best to reward, and the Best to give success.

P:  In this case is protection only from Allah, the True, He is Best for reward, and best for consequence.

S:  Here is protection only Allah’s, the True One; He is best in (the giving of) reward and best in requiting.

018.045 Y:  Set forth to them the similitude of the life of this world:  It is like the rain which we send down from the skies:  the earth’s vegetation absorbs it, but soon it becomes dry stubble, which the winds do scatter:  it is (only) Allah who prevails over all things.

P:  And coin for them the similitude of the life of the world as water which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth mingleth with it and then becometh dry twigs that the winds scatter.  Allah is able to do all things.