For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead! 11 Yet, when they felt Our Punishment (coming), behold, they (tried to) flee from it. 12 We told them, "Do not run away. Come back to your luxuries and your houses so that you can be questioned". 13 They said, "Woe to us! We have been unjust". 14 And this ceased not to be their cry till We made them cut off, extinct. 15 We did not create the heavens and the earth just for fun. 16 If We had wished to find a pastime, We could have found it in Our presence - if We ever did. 17 We bring forward the Truth to crush and destroy falsehood; it is doomed to be banished. Woe to you for your way of thinking about God! 18 To Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and the earth. Those who are with Him are not too proud to worship Him, nor are they ever wearied. 19 And they hallow Him night and day, and they flag not. 20 Or have they chosen gods from the earth who raise the dead? 21 Had there been other deities in the heavens and the earth besides God, both the heavens and the earth would have been destroyed. God, the Lord of the Throne, is too Glorious to be as they think He is. 22 He shall be questioned not as to that which He doth, while they shall be questioned. 23 Or have they chosen other gods beside Him? say: Bring your proof (of their godhead). This is the Reminder of those with me and those before me, but most of them know not the Truth and so they are averse. 24 To all the Messengers that were sent before you We revealed that I am the only God to be worshipped. 25 They say, "The All Merciful has taken a son!" Glory be to Him! They are only His honoured servants: 26 They do not outstrip Him in speech and only act as He commands. 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 ۞ And one of them who should say: Lo! I am a god beside Him, that one We should repay with hell. Thus We Repay wrong-doers. 29