Allah knoweth that which each female beareth and that which the wombs want and that which they exceed, and with Him everything is in due measure: 8 the Knower of the unseen and the visible, the All-great, the All-exalted: 9 Equal* are the one among you who speaks softly and one who speaks aloud, and one who is hidden during the night and one who walks during the daytime. (* For Allah.) 10 For each one are successive [angels] before and behind him who protect him by the decree of Allah. Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron. 11 It is He who shows you the lightning, for fear and hope, and produces the heavy clouds; 12 The thunder celebrates His praise and holiness, and the angels, too, celebrate His praise for awe of Him. He hurls thunderbolts, striking with them whom He wills while they are engaged in disputation concerning Allah. He is Mighty in His contriving. 13 Unto Him is the true call, and those whom they call upon beside Him answer them not at all, save as is answered one stretching out his palms to water that it may reach his mouth, while it will reach it not. And the supplication of the infidels only goeth astray. 14 Whosoever is in the heavens and on earth bows to God in submission with a will or perforce, as do their shadows in the morning and evening. ۩ 15 Ask them: "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "Allah." Tell them: "Have you taken beside Him as your patrons those who do not have the power to benefit or to hurt even themselves?" Say: "Can the blind and the seeing be deemed equals? Or can light and darkness be deemed equals?" If that is not so, then have those whom they associate with Allah in His Divinity ever created anything like what Allah did so that the question of creation has become dubious to them? Say: "Allah is the creator of everything. He is the One, the Irresistible." 16 He sends down from the sky, rain, and valleys flow according to their capacity, and the torrent carries a rising foam. And from that [ore] which they heat in the fire, desiring adornments and utensils, is a foam like it. Thus Allah presents [the example of] truth and falsehood. As for the foam, it vanishes, [being] cast off; but as for that which benefits the people, it remains on the earth. Thus does Allah present examples. 17 There will be the best of rewards for those who respond to their Lord: while those who do not respond to Him -- if they possessed all that is on earth and twice as much, they would surely offer it as ransom [on the Day of Judgement]; -- will have the worst reckoning and their goal is Hell: and how evil a resting-place! 18