Or chooseth He daughters of all that He hath created, and honoureth He you with sons? 16 Yet when news of (a daughter) they had reserved for Ar-Rahman comes to one of them, his face is blackened (with shame), and he grieves in silence inwardly. 17 Does God choose for Himself the kind of children who grow up wearing ornaments and who are not strong enough to defend their rights? 18 And they make the angels who themselves are slaves to the Most Beneficent (Allah) females. Did they witness their creation? Their evidence will be recorded, and they will be questioned! 19 And they say: If the Beneficent One had (so) willed, we should not have worshipped them. They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do but guess. 20 Had We, before sending the Quran, given them a book to which they now refer as an authority? 21 Nay, but they say: "Behold, We found our forefathers agreed on what to believe - and verily, it is in their footsteps that we find our guidance!" 22 And thus it is: whenever We sent, before thy time, a warner to any community, those of its people who had lost themselves entirely in the pursuit of pleasures would always say: "Behold, we found our forefathers agreed on what to believe - and verily, it is but in their footsteps that we follow!" 23 ۞ [Each warner] said, "Even if I brought you better guidance than that [religion] upon which you found your fathers?" They said, "Indeed we, in that with which you were sent, 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