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 say: 'Our forefathers before us who associated others with Allah in His divinity; we were merely their offspring who followed them. And would You destroy us for that which the unrighteous did?' 173 And thus clearly do We spell out these messages; and [We do it] so that they [who have sinned] might return [unto Us]. 174 And recite to them [O Muhammad] the story of the man to whom We gave Our signs and who turned away from them; then ultimately Satan caught up with him and he was led astray. 175 And if We had willed, we could have elevated him thereby, but he adhered [instead] to the earth and followed his own desire. So his example is like that of the dog: if you chase him, he pants, or if you leave him, he [still] pants. That is the example of the people who denied Our signs. So relate the stories that perhaps they will give thought. 176 How evil is the case of those who deny Our signs. They only wrong themselves: 177 Whomsoever Allah guideth, he is the rightly guided: and whomsoever He sendeth astray - those! they are the losers. 178 And certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and the men; they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear; they are as cattle, nay, they are in worse errors; these are the heedless ones. 179 God has the Most Excellent Names. Call on Him by His Names and keep away from those who distort them. They shall be requited for what they do. 180 And of those whom We have created, there is a community who guides (others) with the truth, and establishes justice therewith. 181