How many a city that was evildoing We have shattered, and set up after it another people! 11 And [every time,] as soon as they began to feel Our punishing might, lo! they tried to flee from it 12 (They were told): "Flee not, but return to your comforts and to your dwellings. You are likely to be questioned." 13 They said, "O woe to us! Indeed, we were wrongdoers." 14 Such was what they continued to say until We mowed them down and made them completely extinct. 15 We did not create the heavens and the earth just for fun. 16 had We desired to take to Us a diversion We would have taken it to Us from Ourselves, had We done aught. 17 But in fact We hurl the truth upon falsehood, so it scatters its brains – thereupon it vanishes; and for you is the ruin due to the matters you fabricate. 18 And His is whosoever is in the heavens and the earth; and those nigh unto Him are not too stiff-necked for His worship nor are they weary. 19 glorifying Him by night and in the daytime and never failing. 20 Or, have they taken earthly gods who revive the dead? 21 had there been in heaven or on earth any deities other than God, both [those realms would surely have fallen into ruin! But limitless in His glory is God, enthroned in His awesome almightiness far] above anything that men may devise by way of definition! 22 He cannot be questioned as to what He does, while they will be questioned. 23 Have they chosen other gods besides God? (Muhammad), ask them, "Show the proof (in support of such belief). This is (the Quran) which tells us about the (beliefs of the people) in my time and those who lived before me." Most of them do not know. Moreover, the truth is that they neglect (the question of belief altogether). 24 And We sent not before thee an apostle but We revealed unto him that there is no god but I, so worship Me. 25 They say, "The All Merciful has taken a son!" Glory be to Him! They are only His honoured servants: 26 who do not surpass Him in speech, and do as He commands. 27 He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they do not intercede except for him whom He approves and for fear of Him they tremble. 28 ۞ If any of them should say, "I am a god besides Him", such a one We should reward with Hell: thus do We reward those who do wrong. 29