When your Lord brought forth offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, "Am I not your Lord?" They replied, "We bear witness that You are." This He did, lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, "We had no knowledge of that." 172 or lest you say, 'Our fathers were idolaters aforetime, and we were seed after them. What, wilt Thou then destroy us for the deeds of the vain-doers?' 173 As such We make plain Our verses in order that they return. 174 And recite to them, [O Muhammad], the news of him to whom we gave [knowledge of] Our signs, but he detached himself from them; so Satan pursued him, and he became of the deviators. 175 Now had We so willed, We could indeed have exalted him by means of those [messages]: but he always clung to the earth and followed but his own desires. Thus, his parable is that of an [excited] dog: if thou approach him threateningly, he will pant with his tongue lolling; and if thou leave him alone, he will pant with his tongue lolling. Such is the parable of those who are bent on giving the lie to Our messages. Tell [them,] then, this story, so that they might take thought. 176 How evil an example [is that of] the people who denied Our signs and used to wrong themselves. 177 Whomever Allah guides – only he is on the right path; and whomever He sends astray – it is they who are the losers. 178 And surely, We have created many of the jinns and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones. 179 The most beautiful names belong to Allah: so call on him by them; but shun such men as use profanity in his names: for what they do, they will soon be requited. 180 And among those We created is a community which guides by truth and thereby establishes justice. 181