[40].Surah Al Mumin (The Believer) also known as Surah Ghafir [The Forgiver]: Ayat 073-074

৭৩. অতঃপর তাদেরকে বলা হবে, কোথায় গেল যাদেরকে তোমরা শরীক করতে।
৭৪. আল্লাহ ব্যতীত? তারা বলবে, তারা আমাদের কাছ থেকে উধাও হয়ে গেছে; বরং আমরা তো ইতিপূর্বে কোন কিছুর পূজাই করতাম না। এমনি ভাবে আল্লাহ কাফেরদেরকে বিভ্রান্ত করেন।  

Ayat 73. Then it will be said to them: "Where are (all) those whom you used to join in worship as partners.

Ayat 74.”Besides Allah" They will say: "They have vanished from us: Nay, we did not invoke (worship) anything before." Thus Allah leads astray the disbelievers.

Tafseer of Surah Al Mumin (The Believer) 73. Then shall it be said to them: "Where are the (deities) to which ye gave part- worship. Ayat 74. "In derogation of Allah." They will reply: "They have left us in the lurch: Nay, we invoked not, of old, anything (that had real existence)." Thus does Allah leave the Unbelievers to stray. All falsehood will vanish: Cf. 7:37. The only Reality will be fully manifest even to those to whom Evil was made to seem alluring in the lower life. They will feel in their inmost souls that they had been pursuing mere shadows, things of no real existence. This was the result of their rejecting the Light and the Grace of Allah: they got entangled in the mazes of error.

Hazrat Abu Saeed Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah  [SAWW](PBUH) said, "There will emerge from the East some people who will recite the Qur'an but it will not exceed their throats and who will go out of (renounce) the religion (Islam) as an arrow passes through the game, and they will never come back to it unless the arrow, comes back to the middle of the bow (by itself) (i.e., impossible). The people asked, "What will their signs be?" He  [SAWW](PBUH) said, "Their sign will be the habit of shaving (of their beards).

[Al-Bukhari Chapter 093, Hadith # 651]

Lesson: as mentioned above in Surah Al-Mumin Ayat 74. “Thus Allah leads astray the disbelievers”! Only such people will be elevated who act upon the teachings of the Qur'an and abstain from what is forbidden by Allah. The Muslims of the early centuries of Islam were blessed with great honor by Allah because they loved and applied the Qur'an. Because of this meaningful attachment with the Qur'an, they made great achievements in religious and worldly spheres. Those who neglected the teachings of Islam will be disgraced and humiliated. May Allah guide and enable us to re-establish our contact with the Qur'an so that we can regain our past glory. Exaltation and humiliation mentioned in the Hadith is bound to happen in both this life and the Hereafter.