God is cognisant of what every female carries in her womb, or what the wombs want or exceed (of their disburdening time). With Him all things are in determined measure. 8 [He is] Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Grand, the Exalted. 9 Alike of you is he who hideth the saying and he who noiseth it abroad, he who lurketh in the night and he who goeth freely in the daytime. 10 Everyone is guarded and protected on all sides by the order of God. God does not change the condition of a nation unless it changes what is in its heart. When God wants to punish a people, there is no way to escape from it and no one besides God will protect them from it. 11 HE IT IS who displays before you the lightning, to give rise to [both] fear and hope, and calls heavy clouds into being; 12 and the thunder extols His limitless glory and praises Him, and [so do] the angels, in awe of Him; and He [it is who] lets loose the thunderbolts and strikes with them whom He wills. And yet, they stubbornly argue about God, notwithstanding [all evidence] that He alone has the power to contrive whatever His unfathomable wisdom wills! 13 To Him [alone] is the supplication of truth. And those they call upon besides Him do not respond to them with a thing, except as one who stretches his hands toward water [from afar, calling it] to reach his mouth, but it will not reach it [thus]. And the supplication of the disbelievers is not but in error [i.e. futility]. 14 And unto Allah (Alone) falls in prostration whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows in the mornings and in the afternoons. ۩ 15 Say thou: who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth? Say thou: Allah. Say thou: have ye then taken beside Him patrons who own not to themselves benefit nor hurt! Say thou: are the blind and the seer equal? Or, the darknesses and light equal? Or have they set up associates unto Allah, who have created even as He hath created, so that the creation hath become dubious unto them! Say thou: Allah is the Creator of everything; and He is the One, the Subduer. 16 He sent down water from the sky, so valleys flowed according to their measure, therefore the water flow brought forth the froth swollen upon it; and upon which they ignite the fire, to make ornaments and tools, from that too rises a similar froth; Allah illustrates that this is the example of the truth and the falsehood; the froth then bursts and disappears; and that which is of use to people, remains in the earth; this is how Allah illustrates the examples. 17 There will be the best of rewards for those who respond to their Lord: while those who do not respond to Him -- if they possessed all that is on earth and twice as much, they would surely offer it as ransom [on the Day of Judgement]; -- will have the worst reckoning and their goal is Hell: and how evil a resting-place! 18