۞ Say: What! do you indeed disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two periods, and do you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of the Worlds. 9 And He placed on the earth firmly set mountains over its surface, and He blessed it and determined therein its [creatures'] sustenance in four days without distinction - for [the information] of those who ask. 10 Then He directed Himself to the heaven and it is a vapor, so He said to it and to the earth: Come both, willingly or unwillingly. They both said: We come willingly. 11 So He ordained them seven heavens in two periods, and revealed in every heaven its affair; and We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars and (made it) to guard; that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing. 12 Then if they turn away say, “I warn you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt which came upon A’ad and Thamud.” 13 When their Messengers came to them from before them and behind them, (saying): 'Worship none except Allah' they answered: 'Had it been the will of our Lord, He would have sent down angels. So we disbelieve in the Message with which you were sent' 14 As for the tribe of 'Aad - they grew stiff-necked on the earth without justification, and said: who is mightier than we in strength? Saw they not that Allah who created them, He was Mightier than they in strength? And Our signs they were wont to gainsay. 15 Then, on the ominous days, We loosed against them a howling wind that We might let them taste the punishment of humiliation in this life; but more humiliating will be the punishment of the Everlasting Life and they will not be helped. 16 And as for Thamud, We showed and made clear to them the Path of Truth (Islamic Monotheism) through Our Messenger, (i.e. showed them the way of success), but they preferred blindness to guidance, so the Sa'iqah (a destructive awful cry, torment, hit, a thunderbolt) of disgracing torment seized them, because of what they used to earn. 17 And We saved those who believed and used to fear Allah, keep their duty to Him and avoid evil. 18