For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead! 11 So when they felt Our punishment, lo! they began to fly 12 Do not fly (now) and come back to what you were made to lead easy lives in and to your dwellings, haply you will be questioned. 13 They cried: Alas for us! we were wrong-doers. 14 So they kept saying this until We made them cut off, extinguished. 15 And We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, unnecessarily. 16 Had We intended that We should choose a sport, surely We would choose it from before Us - if We were ever going to do that. 17 Nay, but [by the very act of creation] We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it crushes the latter: and lo! it withers away. But woe unto you for all your [attempts at] defining [God] 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 glorify (Him) night and day; they flag not. 20 Have they taken gods from the earth who raise the deed? 21 Had there been within the heavens and earth gods besides Allah, they both would have been ruined. So exalted is Allah, Lord of the Throne, above what they describe. 22 He is not questioned whatever He does, whereas they will all be questioned. 23 Or have they taken for worship (other) gods besides him? Say, "Bring your convincing proof: this is the Message of those with me and the Message of those before me." But most of them know not the Truth, and so turn away. 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 And yet they say: "Ar-Rahman has begotten a son." Too exalted is He! In fact, those (they call His sons) were His honoured votaries. 26 They cannot precede Him in word, and they act by His command. 27 He knoweth what is before them and what is behind them, and they cannot intercede except for him whom He accepteth, and they quake for 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