When your Lord asked all the offspring of Adam (before their birth), "Am I not your Lord?" All of them testified and bore witness to their testimony that on the Day of Judgment they would not say, "We were not aware of this (fact)," 172 Or say: 'Our forefathers before us who associated others with Allah in His divinity; we were merely their offspring who followed them. And would You destroy us for that which the unrighteous did?' 173 And this is how We explain the verses in different ways, and so that they may return. 174 (Muhammad), tell them the story of the person whom We inspired with Our guidance, but who detached himself from it and who was then pursued by Satan until he turned into a rebel. 175 If it had been Our will, We should have elevated him with Our signs; but he inclined to the earth, and followed his own vain desires. His similitude is that of a dog: if you attack him, he lolls out his tongue, or if you leave him alone, he (still) lolls out his tongue. That is the similitude of those who reject Our signs; So relate the story; perchance they may reflect. 176 What an evil example is of those who denied Our signs and used to wrong only their own souls. 177 Whom Allah doth guide,- he is on the right path: whom He rejects from His guidance,- such are the persons who perish. 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 To God belong the Names Most Beautiful; so call Him by them, and leave those who blaspheme His Names -- they shall assuredly be recompensed for the things they did. 180 Among those whom We created there is a nation who guide with the truth and with it they are just. 181