How many a wrong-doing town did We shatter and then raise up another people. 11 When they felt Our punishment coming upon them, they began to flee from it. 12 'Run not! Return you unto the luxury that you exulted in, and your dwelling-places; haply you shall be questioned.' 13 They said, "Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers," 14 Such was what they continued to say until We mowed them down and made them completely extinct. 15 We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them for a (mere) play. 16 [for,] had We willed to indulge in a pastime, We would indeed have produced it from within Ourselves - if such had been Our will at all! 17 Nay, We hurl the Truth at falsehood so that the Truth crushes falsehood, and lo! it vanishes. Woe to you for what you utter! 18 To Him belongs all those who are in the heavens and the earth. Those who are closer to Him are not too proud to worship Him, nor do they get tired of worshipping. 19 They glorify (Him) by night and day; they are never languid. 20 Or, have they taken earthly gods who revive the dead? 21 had there been in heaven or on earth any deities other than God, both [those realms would surely have fallen into ruin! But limitless in His glory is God, enthroned in His awesome almightiness far] above anything that men may devise by way of definition! 22 He cannot be questioned for His acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs). 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 And they say, "The Most Merciful has taken a son." Exalted is He! Rather, they are [but] honored servants. 26 They speak not until He hath spoken, and they act by His command. 27 He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they do not intercede except for him whom He likes, and they fear with awe of Him. (The Holy Prophets and virtuous people will be given the permission to intercede. Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him – will be the first to intercede.) 28 ۞ And one of them who should say: Lo! I am a god beside Him, that one We should repay with hell. Thus We Repay wrong-doers. 29