Some people who do not believe in the Oneness of God and set partners with Him fail to realise the Sovereignty and Omnipotence of God. They think that the riches they have accumulated and the pleasures they enjoy are the fruit of their own sweat and blood. This erroneous belief makes them arrogant and haughty. This hardens their disbelief. But God is Merciful; He gives such persons enough opportunity to realise the Truth and mend their ways. But, if they do not budge and continue their disbelief, God punishes them here on earth and ultimate failure awaits them in the Day of Judgement.
The Qur’ān presents stories of previous nations who were punished for their haughtiness to serve as examples for the people of later times. Sūrah Kahf, the eighteenth chapter of the Qur’ān, presents a story of two men and two gardens. One man is dazzled with wealth and riches. He feels himself powerful with what he has been blessed with. Hence, he turns haughty and forgets God Who blessed him with the riches. He thinks that his wealth will remain with him for ever. While the other man is a believer who derives his strength through faith. He remembers God and realises that the bounties he enjoys are in themselves evidence of God Who grants all such wealth and riches. Therefore, he expresses his gratitude to God for what he has been blessed with.
The first man is full of pride and arrogance. He speaks arrogantly to the believer whom he knows to be of limited means: “This man said once to his friend, in the course of a discussion between them, more wealth have I than you, and more power and followers.” (18:34)
He has completely forgotten God, and out of pride and arrogance, conceit and ungratefulness, he denies the Day of Judgement. He thinks that God has blessed him with riches here in this life, so He will bless him with more favours in the Life to Come. With these thoughts he visits his garden, saying: “I do not think that this will ever perish! Nor do I think that the Last Hour will ever come. But even if (it does and) I am brought before my Lord, I should surely find there something better than this in exchange.” (18:35-36)
“His friend (the believer) replied in the course of their discussion: ‘Do you deny Him who has created you out of dust, and then out of a drop of sperm, and in the end fashioned you into a man?’” (18:37)
But the disbeliever continues his arrogance and disbelief. Then God punishes him by destroying his garden: “So his fruitful gardens were encompassed with ruin, and there he was, wringing his hands over all that he had spent on that which now lay waste, with its trellises caved in; and he could only say: ‘Would that I had not associated partners with my Lord!’” (18:42)
Only then he is now repentant for having associated partners with God, acknowledging that He alone is the Lord of the universe. But it was too late to mend.