۞ Tell them, (O Prophet): “Do you indeed disbelieve in Him and assign compeers to Him Who created the earth in two days? He is the Lord of all beings of the Universe. 9 For He [it is who, after creating the earth,] placed firm mountains on it, [towering] above its surface, and bestowed [so many] blessings on it, and equitably apportioned its means of subsistence to all who would seek it: [and all this He created] in four aeons. 10 He then inclined towards the heavens and it was smoke – thereupon He said to it and to the earth, “Both of you present yourselves, willingly or with reluctance”; they said, “We present ourselves, with zeal.” 11 He then established them into seven heavens in two days, and to each heaven He sent the command of its affairs; and We decorated the lower heaven with lamps; and for its protection; this is the command set by the Most Honourable, the All Knowing. 12 And We adorned the lower heaven with lamps, and to reserve; that is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing. But if they turn away, then say, 'I warn you of a thunderbolt like to the thunderbolt of Ad and Thamood.' 13 When the Messengers (of Allah) came to them from the front and from the rear, saying: “Do not serve any but Allah”; they said: “Had our Lord so willed, He would have sent down angels. So we deny the Message you have brought.” 14 As for Ad, they waxed proud in the earth without right, and they said, 'Who is stronger than we in might?' What, did they not see that God, who created them, was stronger than they in might? And they denied Our signs. 15 So We sent on them a furious wind in unlucky days, that We may make them taste the chastisement of abasement in this world's life; and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is much more abasing, and they shall not be helped. 16 And as for [the tribe of] Thamud, We offered them guidance, but they chose blindness in preference to guidance: and so the thunderbolt of shameful suffering fell upon them as an outcome of all [the evil] that they had wrought; 17 We saved those who had attained to faith and were God-fearing. 18