God knows well what every female conceives. He knows what the wombs spoil and dispose of. In His plans everything has been designed proportionately. 8 (He is) the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Great, the Exalted. 9 Alike of you is he who conceals his -- saying, and he who proclaims it, he who hides himself in the night, and he who sallies by day; 10 For each (such person) there are (angels) in succession, before and behind him: They guard him by command of Allah. Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts. But when (once) Allah willeth a people's punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will they find, besides Him, any to protect. 11 HE IT IS who displays before you the lightning, to give rise to [both] fear and hope, and calls heavy clouds into being; 12 The thunder exalts His praise, and so are the angels are in awe of Him. He looses the thunderbolts and smites whosoever He will. Yet they dispute about Allah who is Mighty in power. 13 Unto Him is the real prayer. Those unto whom they pray beside Allah respond to them not at all, save as (is the response to) one who stretcheth forth his hands toward water (asking) that it may come unto his mouth, and it will never reach it. The prayer of disbelievers goeth (far) astray. 14 And unto Allah (Alone) falls in prostration whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows in the mornings and in the afternoons. ۩ 15 Say: "Who is the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "[It is] God." Say: "[Why,] then, do you take for your protectors, instead of Him, such as have it not within their power to bring benefit to, or avert harm from, themselves?" Say: "Can the blind and the seeing be deemed equal? - or can the depths of darkness and the light be deemed equal?" Or do they [really] believe that there are, side by side with God, other divine powers that have created the like of what He creates, so that this act of creation appears to them to be similar [to His]? Say: "God is the Creator of all things; and He is the One who holds absolute sway over all that exists." 16 When God sends down water from the sky and floods run through the valleys, certain quantities of foam rise on the surface of the flood water. This is similar to that foam which rises when you expose something to the heat of a fire to manufacture ornaments or for other reasons. To God Truth and falsehood are like these examples. The foam disappears but what is profitable to the human being stays in the land. Thus, does God coin His parables. 17 For those who answer their Lord, the reward most fair; and those who answer Him not -- if they possessed all that is in the earth and the like of it with it, they would offer it for their ransom. Those theirs shall be the evil reckoning, and their refuge shall be Gehenna -- an evil cradling! 18