And how many a city which was unjust have We shattered and produced after it another people. 11 Yet, when they felt Our Punishment (coming), behold, they (tried to) flee from it. 12 (They were told): "Flee not, but return to your comforts and to your dwellings. You are likely to be questioned." 13 They said, "Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers," 14 And that cry of theirs ceased not, till We made them as a field that is mown, as ashes silent and quenched. 15 We did not create in sport the heavens and the earth and all that lies between the two. 16 Had We intended to take a pastime (i.e. a wife or a son, etc.), We could surely have taken it from Us, if We were going to do (that). 17 We bring forward the Truth to crush and destroy falsehood; it is doomed to be banished. Woe to you for your way of thinking about God! 18 To Him belong all (creatures) in the heavens and on earth: Even those who are in His (very) Presence are not too proud to serve Him, nor are they (ever) weary (of His service): 19 They never fail to exalt Him either at night or in the day. 20 Or have they taken gods from the earth who can raise the dead? 21 Had there been other deities in the heavens and the earth besides God, both the heavens and the earth would have been destroyed. God, the Lord of the Throne, is too Glorious to be as they think He is. 22 He cannot be questioned concerning what He does and they shall be questioned. 23 Or have they taken gods besides Him? Say, [O Muhammad], "Produce your proof. This [Qur'an] is the message for those with me and the message of those before me." But most of them do not know the truth, so they are turning away. 24 We have not sent an apostle before you without instructing him that there is no god but I, so worship Me. 25 They say 'The Merciful has taken a son' Exaltations to Him! No, they are only His honored worshipers, 26 they do not try to speak ahead of Him, and they act at His command. 27 He knows all that lies open before them and all that is hidden from them: hence, they cannot intercede for any but those whom He has [already] graced with His goodly acceptance, since they themselves stand in reverent awe of Him. 28 ۞ If any one of them says: 'I am a god other than Him' We will recompense him with Gehenna (Hell). As such We recompense the harmdoers. 29