Allah doth know what every female (womb) doth bear, by how much the wombs fall short (of their time or number) or do exceed. Every single thing is before His sight, in (due) proportion. 8 (He is) the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Great, the Exalted. 9 Alike (to Him) among you is he who conceals (his) words and he who speaks them openly, and he who hides himself by night and (who) goes forth by day. 10 Everyone is guarded and protected on all sides by the order of God. God does not change the condition of a nation unless it changes what is in its heart. When God wants to punish a people, there is no way to escape from it and no one besides God will protect them from it. 11 It is He who shows you the lightning, for fear and hope, and produces the heavy clouds; 12 And the thunder halloweth His praise, and so do the angels in awe of Him; and He sendeth the thunderbolts and smiteth therewith whomsoever He will. And they dispute concerning Allah, and He is strong in prowess. 13 To Him alone should all prayer be addressed, for those to whom they do address their prayers beside Him are altogether powerless to respond to them. The example of praying to any other than Allah is that of a man who stretches out his hands to water, asking it to reach his mouth, although water has no power to reach his mouth. The prayers of the unbelievers are a sheer waste. 14 And unto Allah prostrateth himself whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or of constraint, and also their shadows in the morning and the evenings. ۩ 15 (Muhammad), ask them, "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?" Say, "It is God." Ask them, "Why then have you taken guardians other than God when such guardians can neither benefit nor harm themselves?" Ask them, "Are the seeing and the blind equal? Is light equal to darkness?" Do they consider that their idols have created anything like that of God, thus, both creations appear to them to be alike?" Say, "God alone is the Creator of all things and He is the One, the All-Dominant." 16 He sends down water from the skies, which flows in channels according to their capacity, with the scum borne on the surface of the torrent, as rises the scum when metals are heated on the fire for making ornaments and household utensils. This is how God determines truth and falsehood. The scum disappears like the foam on the bank, and that which is useful to man remains on the earth. That is how God sets forth precepts of wisdom. 17 For those who answered Allah's call is bliss; and for those who answered not His call, if they had all that is in the earth, and therewith the like thereof, they would proffer it as ransom. Such will have a woeful reckoning, and their habitation will be hell, a dire abode. 18