۞ Say: Is it that ye deny Him Who created the earth in two Days? And do ye join equals with Him? He is the Lord of (all) the Worlds. 9 He placed therein firm hills rising above it, and blessed it and measured therein its sustenance in four Days, alike for (all) who ask; 10 Then He directed Himself to the heaven and it is a vapor, so He said to it and to the earth: Come both, willingly or unwillingly. They both said: We come willingly. 11 And He completed them as seven heavens within two days and inspired in each heaven its command. And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as protection. That is the determination of the Exalted in Might, the Knowing. 12 Then if they turn away say, “I warn you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt which came upon A’ad and Thamud.” 13 Recall what time the apostles came unto them from before them and behind them, saying: worship none save Allah. They said: had our Lord listed, He surely would have sent down angels, so verily in that wherewith ye have been sent we are disbelievers altogether. 14 As for the tribe of 'Aad - they grew stiff-necked on the earth without justification, and said: who is mightier than we in strength? Saw they not that Allah who created them, He was Mightier than they in strength? And Our signs they were wont to gainsay. 15 So We let loose on them a violent wind for several days of distress to make them taste a most disgraceful punishment here in this world, and far more shameful will be the punishment in the Hereafter, and there will be no succour for them. 16 As for the (tribe of) Thamud, We tried to guide them, but they preferred blindness to guidance; then they were seized by the torment of a humiliating punishment as requital for their misdeeds; 17 We saved those who had attained to faith and were God-fearing. 18