For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead! 11 And when they tasted Our punishment, they immediately started fleeing from it. 12 Flee not, and return unto that wherein ye luxuriated and your habitations, haply ye will be questioned. 13 They said, "Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers," 14 So they ceased not to cry, until We made them stubble, silent and still. 15 It was not in play that We created the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them. 16 Had We intended to take a diversion, We could have taken it from [what is] with Us - if [indeed] We were to do so. 17 Rather, We dash the truth upon falsehood, and it destroys it, and thereupon it departs. And for you is destruction from that which you describe. 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 They celebrate His praises night and day, nor do they ever flag or intermit. 20 Have they appointed from the earth, Gods that create something? 21 If there were, in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion in both! but glory to Allah, the Lord of the Throne: (High is He) above what they attribute to Him! 22 He shall not be questioned as to what He does, but they shall he questioned. 23 Have they taken gods beside Him? Say thou: forth with your proof This is an admonition unto those with me and an admonition unto those before me. But most of them knew not the truth, and so they are averters. 24 And We did not send before you any apostle but We revealed to him that there is no god but Me, therefore serve 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 speak not until He hath spoken, and they act by His command. 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 should say: "Verily, I am an ilah (a god) besides Him (Allah)," such a one We should recompense with Hell. Thus We recompense the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.). 29