Allah knows what every female bears, and by how much the wombs fall short (of their time or number) or exceed. Everything with Him is in (due) proportion. 8 the Knower of the unseen and the visible, the All-great, the All-exalted: 9 It is the same (to Him) whether any of you conceal his speech or declare it openly, whether he be hid by night or go forth freely by day. 10 Everyone is guarded and protected on all sides by the order of God. God does not change the condition of a nation unless it changes what is in its heart. When God wants to punish a people, there is no way to escape from it and no one besides God will protect them from it. 11 HE IT IS who displays before you the lightning, to give rise to [both] fear and hope, and calls heavy clouds into being; 12 And Ar-Ra'd (thunder) glorifies and praises Him, and so do the angels because of His Awe, He sends the thunderbolts, and therewith He strikes whom He wills, yet they (disbelievers) dispute about Allah. And He is Mighty in strength and Severe in punishment. 13 For Him (alone) is prayer in Truth: any others that they call upon besides Him hear them no more than if they were to stretch forth their hands for water to reach their mouths but it reaches them not: for the prayer of those without Faith is nothing but (futile) wandering (in the mind). 14 And unto Allah prostrateth himself whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or of constraint, and also their shadows in the morning and the evenings. ۩ 15 Say thou: who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth? Say thou: Allah. Say thou: have ye then taken beside Him patrons who own not to themselves benefit nor hurt! Say thou: are the blind and the seer equal? Or, the darknesses and light equal? Or have they set up associates unto Allah, who have created even as He hath created, so that the creation hath become dubious unto them! Say thou: Allah is the Creator of everything; and He is the One, the Subduer. 16 He sendeth down water from the sky, so that valleys flow according to their measure, and the flood beareth (on its surface) swelling foam - from that which they smelt in the fire in order to make ornaments and tools riseth a foam like unto it - thus Allah coineth (the similitude of) the true and the false. Then, as for the foam, it passeth away as scum upon the banks, while, as for that which is of use to mankind, it remaineth in the earth. Thus Allah coineth the similitudes. 17 For those who answer their Lord, the reward most fair; and those who answer Him not -- if they possessed all that is in the earth and the like of it with it, they would offer it for their ransom. Those theirs shall be the evil reckoning, and their refuge shall be Gehenna -- an evil cradling! 18