How many a city that was evildoing We have shattered, and set up after it another people! 11 And when they felt Our Might they fled from it. 12 Flee not, and return unto that wherein ye luxuriated and your habitations, haply ye will be questioned. 13 They said: "Woe to us; surely we were wrong-doers." 14 And that declaration of theirs did not cease until We made them [as] a harvest [mowed down], extinguished [like a fire]. 15 We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them for a (mere) play. 16 Had We intended to take a diversion, We could have taken it from [what is] with Us - if [indeed] We were to do so. 17 Aye! We hurl truth against falsehood, so that it braineth it, and lo! it vanisheth; and to you be the woe for that which ye utter! 18 And whoever is in the heavens and the earth is His; and those who are with Him are not proud to serve Him, nor do they grow weary. 19 they extol His limitless glory by night and by day, never flagging [therein]. 20 And yet some people choose to worship certain earthly things or beings as deities that [are supposed to] resurrect [the dead; and they fail to realize that,] 21 had there been in heaven or on earth any deities other than God, both [those realms would surely have fallen into ruin! But limitless in His glory is God, enthroned in His awesome almightiness far] above anything that men may devise by way of definition! 22 He is not to be questioned about what He does, but they shall be questioned. 23 Have they taken gods beside Him? Say thou: forth with your proof This is an admonition unto those with me and an admonition unto those before me. But most of them knew not the truth, and so they are averters. 24 And We sent never a Messenger before thee except that We revealed to him, saying, 'There is no god but I; so serve Me.' 25 They say 'The Merciful has taken a son' Exaltations to Him! No, they are only His honored worshipers, 26 they do not try to speak ahead of Him, and they act at His command. 27 He knows all that lies open before them and all that is hidden from them: hence, they cannot intercede for any but those whom He has [already] graced with His goodly acceptance, since they themselves stand in reverent awe of Him. 28 ۞ If any of them says, 'I am a god apart from Him', such a one We recompense with Gehenna; even so We recompense the evildoers. 29