How many a wrong-doing town did We shatter and then raise up another people. 11 And [every time,] as soon as they began to feel Our punishing might, lo! 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: O woe to us! surely we were unjust. 14 And that cry of theirs ceased not, till We made them as a field that is mown, as ashes silent and quenched. 15 It was not in play that We created the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them. 16 Had We wished to find a pastime, We would surely have found it in that which is with Us, if such had been Our will. 17 Nay, but [by the very act of creation] We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it crushes the latter: and lo! it withers away. But woe unto you for all your [attempts at] defining [God] 18 To Him belongs all those who are in the heavens and the earth. Those who are closer to Him are not too proud to worship Him, nor do they get tired of worshipping. 19 And they hallow Him night and day, and they flag not. 20 Or, have they taken earthly gods who revive 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 cannot be called to account for whatever He does, whereas they will be called to account: 23 Have they taken gods, other than Him? Say: 'Bring us your proof! Here is the Remembrance of he who is with me and the Remembrance of those before me' But no, most of them do not know the truth, therefore they turn away. 24 And We did not send before you any apostle but We revealed to him that there is no god but Me, therefore serve Me. 25 And yet they say: "Ar-Rahman has begotten a son." Too exalted is He! In fact, those (they call His sons) were His honoured votaries. 26 They speak not before He speaks, and they act (in all things) by 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 should say, "I am a god besides Him", such a one We should reward with Hell: thus do We reward those who do wrong. 29