For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead! 11 Whensoever they sensed Our punishment they fled from them. 12 'Run not! Return you unto the luxury that you exulted in, and your dwelling-places; haply you shall be questioned.' 13 They said: 'Alas for us we were harmdoers' 14 And that cry of theirs ceased not, till We made them as a field that is mown, as ashes silent and quenched. 15 And We did not create the heaven and earth and that between them in play. 16 Had We wished to make a diversion, We would have made it from before Ourselves: by no means would We do (it). 17 In fact We strike the truth against the false, which shatters it, and it disappears. Woe to you for what you attribute (to Him)! 18 To Him belongs all those who are in the heavens and the earth. Those who are closer to Him are not too proud to worship Him, nor do they get tired of worshipping. 19 They celebrate His praises night and day, nor do they ever flag or intermit. 20 Or have they taken gods from the earth who raise (the dead). 21 If other than Allah, there were gods* in the heavens and the earth, they would be destroyed; therefore Purity is to Allah, Owner of the Throne, from the matters that they fabricate. (* Which is not possible.) 22 He cannot be questioned as to what He does, while they will be questioned. 23 Or have they taken gods besides Him? Say, [O Muhammad], "Produce your proof. This [Qur'an] is the message for those with me and the message of those before me." But most of them do not know the truth, so they are turning away. 24 And We sent never a Messenger before thee except that We revealed to him, saying, 'There is no god but I; so serve Me.' 25 They say: "The Most Compassionate Lord has taken to Himself a son." Glory be to Him! Those whom they so designate are only His honoured servants. 26 They do not precede Him in speech and (only) according to His commandment do they act. 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 one of them says: 'I am a god other than Him' We will recompense him with Gehenna (Hell). As such We recompense the harmdoers. 29