۞ Say: What! do you indeed disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two periods, and do you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of the Worlds. 9 And He placed therein mountains firmly rooted rising above it, and blessed it, and ordained therein the sustenance thereof, all this in four days, complete; this for the inquirers. 10 Then He Istawa (rose over) towards the heaven when it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth: "Come both of you willingly or unwillingly." They both said: "We come, willingly." 11 He formed the seven heavens in two days and revealed to each one its task. He decked the sky above the earth with torches and protected it from (intruders).. Such is the design of the Majestic and All-knowing God". 12 BUT IF they turn away, say: "I warn you of [the coming of] a thunderbolt of punishment like the thunderbolt [that fell upon the tribes] of Ad and Thamud!" 13 Recall what time the apostles came unto them from before them and behind them, saying: worship none save Allah. They said: had our Lord listed, He surely would have sent down angels, so verily in that wherewith ye have been sent we are disbelievers 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 So We sent on them a furious wind in unlucky days, that We may make them taste the chastisement of abasement in this world's life; and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is much more abasing, and they shall not be helped. 16 And as for Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance, so the thunderbolt of humiliating punishment seized them for what they used to earn. 17 Yet We delivered those who believed and were God-fearing. 18