For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead! 11 So when they felt Our punishment, lo! they began to fly 12 Do not fly (now) and come back to what you were made to lead easy lives in and to your dwellings, haply you will be questioned. 13 They said, 'Alas for us! We have been evildoers.' 14 Such was what they continued to say until We mowed them down and made them completely extinct. 15 It was not in play that We created the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them. 16 Had We wished to find a pastime, We would surely have found it in that which is with Us, if such had been Our will. 17 No, We hurl truth at falsehood, and it shall conquer it, and see, falsehood vanishes. Woe to you for all you have described. 18 To Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and on the earth and those that are with Him are never too proud to worship Him, nor do they grow weary; 19 They (i.e. the angels) glorify His Praises night and day, (and) they never slacken (to do so). 20 Or have they taken gods out of the earth who raise the dead? 21 If other than Allah, there were gods* in the heavens and the earth, they would be destroyed; therefore Purity is to Allah, Owner of the Throne, from the matters that they fabricate. (* Which is not possible.) 22 He shall be questioned not as to that which He doth, while they shall be questioned. 23 Have they taken gods beside Him? Say thou: forth with your proof This is an admonition unto those with me and an admonition unto those before me. But most of them knew not the truth, and so they are averters. 24 And We sent never a Messenger before thee except that We revealed to him, saying, 'There is no god but I; so serve Me.' 25 And [yet,] some say: "The Most Gracious has taken unto Himself a son"! Limitless is He in His glory! Nay, [those whom they regard as God's "offspring" are but His] honoured servants: 26 These servants do not speak before He speaks. They simply act according to His orders. 27 He knows whatever is before them and whatsoever is remote from them and they do not intercede except for him, intercession on whose behalf pleases Him, and they stand constantly in awe of Him. 28 ۞ And if any of them should say: "Verily, I am an ilah (a god) besides Him (Allah)," such a one We should recompense with Hell. Thus We recompense the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.). 29