What! has He taken daughters to Himself of what He Himself creates and chosen you to have sons? 16 And when one of them is given good tidings of that which he attributes to the Most Merciful in comparison, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. 17 Do they assign to Allah one who grows up amidst ornaments and is not well-versed in the art of disputation? 18 They consider the angels, God's servants, to be female. Did they witness their creation? Their claim will be put on record and they will be questioned about it. 19 Yet they say: "Had [not] the Most Gracious so willed, we would never have worshipped them!" [But] they cannot have any knowledge of [His having willed] such a thing: they do nothing but guess. 20 Did We give them a Scripture before this to which they are holding fast? 21 Rather, they say, "Indeed, we found our fathers upon a religion, and we are in their footsteps [rightly] guided." 22 In the same way, whenever We had sent a Messenger before you to warn a town, the rich ones therein said, "We found our fathers following a certain belief and we follow in their footsteps. 23 ۞ (And the warner) said: What! Even though I bring you better guidance than that ye found your fathers following? They answered: Lo! in what ye bring we are disbelievers. 24 And so We inflicted Our retribution on them: and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 25