Has God chosen some of His own creatures as daughters for Himself and has given you the preference of having sons? 16 And if one of them is informed of the news of (the birth of) that which he set forth as a parable to the Most Beneficent (Allah) (i.e. of a girl), his face becomes dark, gloomy, and he is filled with grief! 17 "What! [Am I to have a daughter] one who is to be reared [only] for the sake of ornament?" and thereupon he finds himself torn by a vague inner conflict. 18 And they make the angels, who are the slaves of the Beneficent, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded and they will be questioned. 19 Yet they say: "Had [not] the Most Gracious so willed, we would never have worshipped them!" [But] they cannot have any knowledge of [His having willed] such a thing: they do nothing but guess. 20 Have We given them a Book before this, to which they are holding fast? 21 Nay, but they say, 'We found our fathers upon a community, and we are guided upon their traces.' 22 And thus it is: whenever We sent, before thy time, a warner to any community, those of its people who had lost themselves entirely in the pursuit of pleasures would always say: "Behold, we found our forefathers agreed on what to believe - and verily, it is but in their footsteps that we follow!" 23 ۞ Say: 'What then if I bring you a better guidance than that you found your fathers following' But they reply: 'We disbelieve in that you have been sent with.' 24 We took revenge on them. See how terrible the end of those who rejected (Or revelations) was! 25