۞ Say, "Do you really disbelieve in the One Who created the earth in two days? Do you consider things equal to Him? He is the Lord of the Universe. 9 And He made in it mountains above its surface, and He blessed therein and made therein its foods, in four periods: alike for the seekers. 10 Then He turned to heaven when it was vapour and said to it and to the earth, "Come willingly or unwillingly." They both said, "We come willingly," 11 So He determined them as seven heavens in two days, and revealed its commandment in every heaven.' 12 BUT IF they turn away, say: "I warn you of [the coming of] a thunderbolt of punishment like the thunderbolt [that fell upon the tribes] of Ad and Thamud!" 13 When their messengers came unto them from before them and behind them, saying: Worship none but Allah! they said: If our Lord had willed, He surely would have sent down angels (unto us), so lo! we are disbelievers in that wherewith ye have been sent. 14 Now the 'Ad behaved arrogantly through the land, against (all) truth and reason, and said: "Who is superior to us in strength?" What! did they not see that Allah, Who created them, was superior to them in strength? But they continued to reject Our Signs! 15 We therefore sent a violent thunderstorm towards them in their days of misfortune, in order to make them taste a disgraceful punishment in the life of this world; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is more disgracing, and they will 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 And We saved those who believed and used to fear Allah. 18