Say: Who gives you sustenance from the heaven and the earth? Or Who controls the hearing and the sight? And Who brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living? And Who regulates the affairs? Then they will say: Allah. Say then: Will you not then guard (against evil)? 31 Such is Allah, your real Cherisher and Sustainer: apart from truth, what (remains) but error? How then are ye turned away? 32 Thus does the word of your Lord prove true against those who transgress that they do not believe. 33 Ask then, "Can any of your partner-gods originate creation, and then reproduce it?" Say, "It is God who originates creation and then restores it: how then are you so misled?" 34 Say: 'Is there any of your associates who guides to the truth?' Say: 'God -- He guides to the truth; and which is worthier to be followed -- He who guides to the truth, or he who guides not unless he is guided? What then ails you, how you judge?' 35 Many of them follow nothing but illusion; yet illusion cannot replace the reality. God verily knows what they do. 36 Now this Qur'an could not possibly have been devised by anyone save God: nay indeed, it confirms the truth of whatever there still remains [of earlier revelations] and clearly spells out the revelation [which comes] - let there be no doubt about it - from the Sustainer of all the worlds. 37 Do they say that Muhammad has invented it? (Muhammad), tell them, "If your claim is true, compose only one chapter like it and call on anyone besides God for help. 38 Nay, but they are bent on giving the lie to everything the wisdom whereof they do not comprehend, and ere its inner meaning has become clear to them Even thus did those who lived before their time give the lie to the truth: and behold what happened in the end to those evildoers! 39 Some of them believe in the Quran and others do not. Your Lord knows best the evil doers. 40