۞ Say: "Do you refuse to believe in Him who created the earth in two spans of time, and set up compeers to Him, the Lord of all the worlds? 9 He placed firm stabilisers rising above its surface, blessed it with plenty and growth, and ingrained the means of growing its food within it, sufficient for all seekers, in four spans. 10 Then He turned to heaven when it was vapour and said to it and to the earth, "Come willingly or unwillingly." They both said, "We come willingly," 11 And He [it is who] decreed that they become seven heavens in two aeons, and imparted unto each heaven its function. And We adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights, and made them secure: such is the ordaining of the Almighty, the All-Knowing. 12 But if they turn aside, then say: I have warned you of a scourge like the scourge of Ad and Samood. 13 When the Messengers came to them, from before them and behind them (saying): "Worship none but Allah" They said: "If our Lord had so willed, He would surely have sent down the angels. So indeed! We disbelieve in that with which you have been sent." 14 So those who were 'Ad turned insolent unjustly in the land, and said: "Who is stronger than us?" Did they not see that God who created them was greater far in power than they? Yet they refused to believe Our signs. 15 Then We loosed against them a wind clamorous in days of ill fortune, that We might let them taste the chastisement of degradation in the present life; and the chastisement of the world to come is even more degrading, 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 and We saved [only] those who had attained to faith and were conscious of Us. 18