۞ Say: "Do you refuse to believe in Him who created the earth in two spans of time, and set up compeers to Him, the Lord of all the worlds? 9 And in it He placed mountains as anchors from above it, and blessings in it, and appointed the sustenance for those who dwell in it – all this in four days; a proper answer to those who question. 10 Then He turned to heaven when it was vapour and said to it and to the earth, "Come willingly or unwillingly." They both said, "We come willingly," 11 In two days He determined them seven heavens, and He revealed to each heaven its commands. We decorated the lowest heaven with lamps and preserve them. Such is the decree of the Almighty, the Knower. 12 But if they turn away, then say, "I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt [that struck] 'Aad and Thamud. 13 Behold, the messengers came to them, from before them and behind them, (preaching): "Serve none but Allah." They said, "If our Lord had so pleased, He would certainly have sent down angels (to preach). Now we reject your mission (altogether)." 14 As for A'ad, they were arrogant in the land without right, and they said: Who is mightier than us in power? Could they not see that Allah Who created them, He was mightier than them in power? And they denied Our revelations. 15 whereupon We sent upon them a fierce wind on inauspicious days that We might make them taste a degrading chastisement in the life of this world. And surely the chastisement of the Hereafter is even more degrading. There will be none to help them there. 16 And as for the tribe of the Thamud We guided them but they preferred blindness to the guidance, wherefore the bolt of the torment of abjection laid hold of them because of that which they had been earning. 17 Yet We delivered those who believed and were God-fearing. 18