How many a town has disobeyed its Lord and His Messenger! For them Our questioning was strict and Our punishment severe. 8 So it tasted the mischief of its action, and the end of its matter was loss. 9 God prepared for them a terrible chastisement. So fear God, O men possessed of minds! Believers, God has sent down to you, for a remembrance, 10 The Noble Messenger who recites the clear verses of Allah to you, so that he may take those who accept faith and do good deeds, away from the realms of darkness towards light; and whoever accepts faith in Allah and does good deeds, Allah will admit him into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide in them for ever and ever; indeed Allah has kept an excellent sustenance for him. 11 GOD is He who has created seven heavens, and like them, [the many aspects] of the earth. Through all of them flows down from on high, unceasingly, His [creative] will, so that you might come to know that God has the power to will anything, and that God encompasses all things with His knowledge. 12