When your Lord asked all the offspring of Adam (before their birth), "Am I not your Lord?" All of them testified and bore witness to their testimony that on the Day of Judgment they would not say, "We were not aware of this (fact)," 172 Or lest you should say: "It was only our fathers afortime who took others as partners in worship along with Allah, and we were (merely their) descendants after them; will You then destroy us because of the deeds of men who practised Al-Batil (i.e. polytheism and committing crimes and sins, invoking and worshipping others besides Allah)?" (Tafsir At-Tabari). 173 And this is how We explain the verses in different ways, and so that they may return. 174 And recite to them the tiding of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off; and Satan followed after him, and he became one of the perverts. 175 And had We willed, We would surely have elevated him therewith but he clung to the earth and followed his own vain desire. So his description is the description of a dog: if you drive him away, he lolls his tongue out, or if you leave him alone, he (still) lolls his tongue out. Such is the description of the people who reject Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.). So relate the stories, perhaps they may reflect. 176 Evil is the likeness of the people who reject Our communications and are unjust to their own souls. 177 Whom Allah doth guide,- he is on the right path: whom He rejects from His guidance,- such are the persons who perish. 178 We have destined many men and jinn for hell. They have hearts but do not understand, eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear. They are worse than lost cattle. These are the heedless ones. 179 To God belong the Names Most Beautiful; so call Him by them, and leave those who blaspheme His Names -- they shall assuredly be recompensed for the things they did. 180 And among those We created is a community which guides by truth and thereby establishes justice. 181