۞ SAY: "Would you indeed deny Him who has created the earth in two aeons? And do you claim that there is any power that could rival Him, the Sustainer of all the worlds?" 9 'And He set therein firm mountains over it, and He blessed it, and He ordained therein its diverse sustenance in four days, equal to those who ask.' 10 Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, "Come [into being], willingly or by compulsion." They said, "We have come willingly." 11 In two days He determined them seven heavens, and He revealed to each heaven its commands. We decorated the lowest heaven with lamps and preserve them. Such is the decree of the Almighty, the Knower. 12 But if they turn away, tell them: “I warn you against a sudden scourge like that which struck Ad and Thamud.” 13 [That occurred] when the messengers had come to them before them and after them, [saying], "Worship not except Allah." They said, "If our Lord had willed, He would have sent down the angels, so indeed we, in that with which you have been sent, are disbelievers." 14 So regarding the A’ad, they were haughty in the land without right, and they said, “Who is more powerful than us?” Did they not realise that Allah, Who created them, is more powerful than them? And they used to deny Our signs. 15 So We sent against them a furious Wind through days of disaster, that We might give them a taste of a Penalty of humiliation in this life; but the Penalty of a Hereafter will be more humiliating still: and they will find no help. 16 As for Thamood, We guided them, but they preferred blindness above guidance, so the thunderbolt of the chastisement of humiliation seized them for that they were earning. 17 Yet We delivered those who believed and were God-fearing. 18