When your Lord brought forth offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, "Am I not your Lord?" They replied, "We bear witness that You are." This He did, lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, "We had no knowledge of that." 172 Or [lest] you say, "It was only that our fathers associated [others in worship] with Allah before, and we were but descendants after them. Then would You destroy us for what the falsifiers have done?" 173 And this is how We explain the verses in different ways, and so that they may return. 174 Relate to them the story of the man to whom We sent Our signs, but he passed them by: so Satan followed him up, and he went astray. 175 Had We wanted, We could have raised him to an exalted position but he clung to his earthly life and followed his own (evil) desires. Such person's bad habits are like those of a lazy dog (in a warm climate) who always has its tongue hanging out whether you chase it away or leave it alone. Such are the people who have called Our revelations mere lies. (Muhammad), tell them such stories so that perhaps they will think. 176 Evil is the example of people who are bent on giving the lie to Our messages: for it is against their own selves that they are sinning! 177 Whoever Allah guides - he is the [rightly] guided; and whoever He sends astray - it is those who are the losers. 178 And certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and the men; they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear; they are as cattle, nay, they are in worse errors; these are the heedless ones. 179 God has the most blessed Names. You should address Him in your worship by these Names and keep away from those who pervert them. They will be recompensed for their (evil) deeds. 180 And from Our creation is a group that shows the truth and establishes justice with it. 181