Or chooseth He daughters of all that He hath created, and honoureth He you with sons? 16 When one of them is given the glad news of the birth of a daughter, which they believe to be the only kind of child that the Beneficent God can have, his face blackens with anger. 17 What! that which is made in ornaments and which in contention is unable to make plain speech! 18 Do they say that the angels, who are the servants of the Beneficent God, are females? Have they witnessed their creation? Their words as such will be recorded and they will be questioned for it. 19 And they said: "If it had been the Will of the Most Beneficent (Allah), we should not have worshipped them (false deities)." They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do nothing but lie! 20 Have We given them a Book before this, to which they are holding fast? 21 Nay! They say: "We found our fathers following a certain way and religion, and we guide ourselves by their footsteps." 22 Whenever We sent a messenger before you to warn a township, the affluent among them said, in the same way, "We saw our fathers following this tradition; we are only following in their footsteps." 23 ۞ The Messengers would say, "Would you still follow in the footsteps of your fathers even if I was to bring you better guidance?" They would say, "We have no faith in your message". 24 And so We inflicted Our retribution on them: and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 25