How many harmdoing villages have We shattered and replaced them with another nation. 11 Then, when they perceived Our chastisement they took to their heels and fled. 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 said: 'Alas for us we were harmdoers' 14 They did not cease to cry this until We reduced them to stubble, still and silent. 15 And We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, unnecessarily. 16 If We had pleased to make a plaything We could have made it Ourself, if We had cared to do so. 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 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 gods from the earth who raise (the dead). 21 Had there been any gods in the heavens and the earth apart from Allah, the order of both the heavens and the earth would have gone to ruins. Glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Throne, Who is far above their false descriptions of Him. 22 None shall question Him about what He does, but they shall be questioned. 23 Or have they taken gods apart from Him? Say: 'Bring your proof! This is the Remembrance of him who is with me, and the Remembrance of those before me. Nay, but the most part of them know not the truth, so therefore they are turning away. 24 And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, "There is no deity except Me, so worship Me." 25 They say 'The Merciful has taken a son' Exaltations to Him! No, they are only His honored worshipers, 26 that outstrip Him not in speech, and perform as He commands. 27 He knows what is before them and behind them, and they intercede not save for him with whom He is well-pleased, and they tremble in awe of Him. 28 ۞ And if any of them were to say: "Behold, I am deity beside Him" - that one We should requite with hell: thus do We requite all [such] evildoers. 29