18

The likeness, the description, of those who disbelieve in their Rabb (alladhīna kafarū bi-rabbihim: the subject, substituted by [the following, a'māluhum,]): their works, the righteous ones, such as kindness [to kin] or an act of charity - in the way that no benefit can be derived from them [it is because these works] - are as ashes over which the wind blows hard on a tempestuous day, one in which the winds blow violently, making them as scattered dust, over which none can have power (the genitive [clause beginning with ka-ramādin, 'as ashes'] constitutes the predicate of the [above-mentioned] subject); they, that is, the disbelievers, have no power over anything that they have earned, [anything] that they had done in [their] life on earth, in other words, they shall find no reward for it, since this was never a precondition.2 That is extreme error, [extreme] perdition!

18 ﴿