How many a town (community), that were wrong-doers, have We destroyed, and raised up after them another people! 11 When they found Our torment approaching them they started to run away from the town. 12 We told them, "Do not run away. Come back to your luxuries and your houses so that you can be questioned". 13 They said: O woe to us! surely we were unjust. 14 And this ceased not to be their cry till We made them cut off, 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, but [by the very act of creation] We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it crushes the latter: and lo! it withers away. But woe unto you for all your [attempts at] defining [God] 18 And whoever is in the heavens and the earth is His; and those who are with Him are not proud to serve Him, nor do they grow weary. 19 They exalt [Him] night and day [and] do not slacken. 20 Or have they taken gods out of the earth who 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 about what He does, but they will be questioned. 23 Have they taken gods other than Him? Say, (O Muhammad): "Bring forth your proof! Here is the Book with admonition for those of my time and there are also scriptures with admonition for people before me." But most people do not know the Truth, and have, therefore, turned away from it. 24 And We sent no messenger before thee but We inspired him, (saying): There is no Allah save Me (Allah), so worship Me. 25 They said, "The Beneficent God has given birth to a son. He is too Exalted to give birth to a son." (Those whom they think are God's sons) are only His honorable servants. 26 They precede Him not in words, and by His command they work. 27 He knows whatever is before them and whatsoever is remote from them and they do not intercede except for him, intercession on whose behalf pleases Him, and they stand constantly in awe of Him. 28 ۞ If any of them should say, "I am a god besides Him", such a one We should reward with Hell: thus do We reward those who do wrong. 29