And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves, 'Am I not your Lord?' They said, 'Yes, we testify'-- lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, 'As for us, we were heedless of this,' 172 Or lest you say, "Our forefathers associated others with God before our time, and we are only the descendants who came after them. So are You going to destroy us for what those inventors of falsehood did?" 173 We explain Our signs in detail thus, so that perhaps they may return to Us. 174 And recite thou unto them the story of him unto whom We vouchsafed Our signs, but he sloughed them off, wherefore the Satan followed him, and he became of the perverted. 175 Now had We so willed, We could indeed have exalted him by means of those [messages]: but he always clung to the earth and followed but his own desires. Thus, his parable is that of an [excited] dog: if thou approach him threateningly, he will pant with his tongue lolling; and if thou leave him alone, he will pant with his tongue lolling. Such is the parable of those who are bent on giving the lie to Our messages. Tell [them,] then, this story, so that they might take thought. 176 Evil is the likeness of the people who reject Our communications and are unjust to their own souls. 177 Those whom God has guided have the true guidance, but those whom He has caused to go astray are certainly lost. 178 And certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and the men; they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear; they are as cattle, nay, they are in worse errors; these are the heedless ones. 179 To Allah belongs the Finest Names, so call Him by them, and keep away from those who pervert them. They shall be recompensed for the things they did. 180 Of those We created are a nation who guide by the truth, and by it act with justice. 181