Allah knows what every female carries and what the wombs lose [prematurely] or exceed. And everything with Him is by due measure. 8 the Knower of the unseen and the visible, the All-great, the All-exalted: 9 Alike of you is he who hideth the saying and he who noiseth it abroad, he who lurketh in the night and he who goeth freely in the daytime. 10 His angels keep watch over him in succession (night and day), in front and behind, by God's command. Verily God does not change the state of a people till they change themselves. When God intends misfortune for a people no one can avert it, and no saviour will they have apart from Him. 11 It is God who flashes lightning to frighten you and to give you hope. It is He who forms the heavy clouds. 12 And Ar-Ra'd (thunder) glorifies and praises Him, and so do the angels because of His Awe, He sends the thunderbolts, and therewith He strikes whom He wills, yet they (disbelievers) dispute about Allah. And He is Mighty in strength and Severe in punishment. 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 falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening hours. ۩ 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 He sends down out of heaven water, and the wadis flow each in its measure, and the torrent carries a swelling scum; and out of that over which they kindle fire, being desirous of ornament or ware, out of that rises a scum the like of it. So God strikes both the true and the false. As for the scum, it vanishes as jetsam, and what profits men abides in the earth. Even so God strikes His similitudes. 17 For those who answered their Lord's Call [believed in the Oneness of Allah and followed His Messenger Muhammad SAW i.e. Islamic Monotheism] is Al-Husna (i.e. Paradise). But those who answered not His Call (disbelieved in the Oneness of Allah and followed not His Messenger Muhammad SAW), if they had all that is in the earth together with its like, they would offer it in order to save themselves (from the torment, it will be in vain). For them there will be the terrible reckoning. Their dwelling place will be Hell; - and worst indeed is that place for rest. 18