۞ Say: "Do you refuse to believe in Him who created the earth in two spans of time, and set up compeers to Him, the Lord of all 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 while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, "Come [into being], willingly or by compulsion." They said, "We have 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 But if they turn away, tell them: “I warn you against a sudden scourge like that which struck 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 So those who were 'Ad turned insolent unjustly in the land, and said: "Who is stronger than us?" Did they not see that God who created them was greater far in power than they? Yet they refused to believe Our signs. 15 So We let loose on them a violent wind for several days of distress to make them taste a most disgraceful punishment here in this world, and far more shameful will be the punishment in the Hereafter, and there will be no succour for them. 16 And as for the tribe of the Thamud We guided them but they preferred blindness to the guidance, wherefore the bolt of the torment of abjection laid hold of them because of that which they had been earning. 17 and We saved those who believed and feared Allah. 18