۞ 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 He set therein firm mountains over it, and He blessed it, and He ordained therein its diverse sustenance in four days, equal to those who ask.' 10 Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. 11 So He ordained them seven heavens in two periods, and revealed in every heaven its affair; and We adorned the lower heaven with brilliant stars and (made it) to guard; that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing. 12 If they ignore (your message), tell them, "I have warned you against a destructive blast of sound like that which struck the people of `Ad and Thamud. 13 When the Messengers came to them, from before them and behind them (saying): "Worship none but Allah" They said: "If our Lord had so willed, He would surely have sent down the angels. So indeed! We disbelieve in that with which you have been sent." 14 Now the 'Ad behaved arrogantly through the land, against (all) truth and reason, and said: "Who is superior to us in strength?" What! did they not see that Allah, Who created them, was superior to them in strength? But they continued to reject Our Signs! 15 So We let loose on them a violent wind for several days of distress to make them taste a most disgraceful punishment here in this world, and far more shameful will be the punishment in the Hereafter, and there will be no succour for them. 16 As for Thamood, We (offered) them Our Guidance, but they preferred blindness to guidance. So a thunderbolt of the humiliating punishment seized them because of what they had earned; 17 But We saved those who believed and took heed for themselves. 18