Allah knoweth that which each female beareth and that which the wombs want and that which they exceed, and with Him everything is in due measure: 8 He knows all the unseen and seen. He is the most Great and High. 9 Equal unto him is he among you who hideth the word and he who publisheth it, and he who hideth himself in the night and he who goeth about freely in the day. 10 For each one are successive [angels] before and behind him who protect him by the decree of Allah. Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron. 11 It is He who shows you lightening, [causing] fear and aspiration, and generates the heavy clouds. 12 and the thunder glorifies Him with His praise and the angels do so too in awe of Him, and He sends His thunderbolts to strike anyone He pleases, yet they dispute about God, who is inexorable in His power. 13 The only true appeal is to God alone; those they appeal to instead of Him will never respond to them in any way. They are like a man who stretches forth his hands toward the water, so that it may reach his mouth, but it never does. The calls of those who deny the truth are all in vain. 14 And to Allah only prostrate all those who are in the heavens and in the earth, willingly or helplessly – and their shadows – every morning and evening. (Command of prostration # 2). ۩ 15 Say: "Who is the Lord and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "(It is) Allah." Say: "Do ye then take (for worship) protectors other than Him, such as have no power either for good or for harm to themselves?" Say: "Are the blind equal with those who see? Or the depths of darkness equal with light?" Or do they assign to Allah partners who have created (anything) as He has created, so that the creation seemed to them similar? Say: "Allah is the Creator of all things: He is the One, the Supreme and Irresistible." 16 [Whenever] He sends down water from the sky, and [once dry] river-beds are running high according to their measure, the stream carries scum on its surface; and likewise, from that [metal] which they smelt in the fire in order to make ornaments or utensils, [there rises] scum. In this way does God set forth the parable of truth and falsehood: for, as far as the scum is concerned, it passes away as [does all] dross; but that which is of benefit to man abides on earth. In this way does God set forth the parables 17 For those who answer their Lord, the reward most fair; and those who answer Him not -- if they possessed all that is in the earth and the like of it with it, they would offer it for their ransom. Those theirs shall be the evil reckoning, and their refuge shall be Gehenna -- an evil cradling! 18