۞ 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 made in it mountains above its surface, and He blessed therein and made therein its foods, in four periods: alike for the seekers. 10 Thereafter turned He to the heaven and it was as smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: come ye twain, willingly or loth. They said: we come willingly. 11 And He completed them as seven heavens within two days and inspired in each heaven its command. And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as protection. That is the determination of the Exalted in Might, the Knowing. 12 If they ignore (your message), tell them, "I have warned you against a destructive blast of sound like that which struck the people of `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 regarding the A’ad, they were haughty in the land without right, and they said, “Who is more powerful than us?” Did they not realise that Allah, Who created them, is more powerful than them? And they used to deny Our signs. 15 So We sent against them a furious Wind through days of disaster, that We might give them a taste of a Penalty of humiliation in this life; but the Penalty of a Hereafter will be more humiliating still: and they will find no help. 16 As to the Thamud, We gave them Guidance, but they preferred blindness (of heart) to Guidance: so the stunning Punishment of humiliation seized them, because of what they had earned. 17 And We delivered those who believed and guarded (against evil). 18