And recall what time thy Lord took from the children of Adam their posterity from their backs, and made them testify as to themselves saying: am I not your Lord? They said: Yea! we testify. That was lest ye should say on the Day of Resurrection: verily of this we have been unaware. 172 Or lest ye should say: "Our fathers before us may have taken false gods, but we are (their) descendants after them: wilt Thou then destroy us because of the deeds of men who were futile?" 173 And this is how We explain the verses in different ways, and so that they may return. 174 Relate to them the plight of the man whom We gave Our signs, but he passed them by, so that Satan came after him, and he went astray. 175 And if We had willed, we could have elevated him thereby, but he adhered [instead] to the earth and followed his own desire. So his example is like that of the dog: if you chase him, he pants, or if you leave him, he [still] pants. That is the example of the people who denied Our signs. So relate the stories that perhaps they will give thought. 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 Whomsoever Allah guideth, he is the rightly guided: and whomsoever He sendeth astray - those! they are the losers. 178 And most certainly have We destined for hell many of the invisible beings and men who have hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth, and eyes with which they fail to see, and ears with which they fail to hear. They are like cattle - nay, they are even less conscious of the right way: it is they, they who are the [truly] heedless! 179 AND GOD'S [alone] are the attributes of perfection; invoke Him, then, by these, and stand aloof from all who distort the meaning of His attributes: they shall be requited for all that they were wont to do! 180 And of those whom We have created there is a party who guide men through the truth and act justly according to it. 181