Or, has He taken daughters from those He has created for Himself and favored sons for you? 16 For [thus it is:] if any of them is given the glad tiding of [the birth of] what he so readily attributes to the Most Gracious, his face darkens, and he is filled with suppressed anger: 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 Do they say that the angels, who are the servants of the Beneficent God, are females? Have they witnessed their creation? Their words as such will be recorded and they will be questioned for it. 19 Yet they say: "Had [not] the Most Gracious so willed, we would never have worshipped them!" [But] they cannot have any knowledge of [His having willed] such a thing: they do nothing but guess. 20 Had We, before sending the Quran, given them a book to which they now refer as an authority? 21 Nay! they say: We found our fathers on a course, and surely we are guided by their footsteps. 22 And even so We sent not a warner before thee (Muhammad) into any township but its luxurious ones said: Lo! we found our fathers following a religion, and we are following their footprints. 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 So We exacted retribution from them: now see what was the end of those who rejected (Truth)! 25