How many a town (community), that were wrong-doers, have We destroyed, and raised up after them another people! 11 And when they tasted Our punishment, they immediately started fleeing from it. 12 They were told, "Do not try to flee, but return to the comfort and luxuries in which you exulted and to the places where you lived, so that you may be questioned." 13 They said, "Woe to us! We were indeed wrongdoers," 14 So they kept saying this until We made them cut off, extinguished. 15 And We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, unnecessarily. 16 If it had been Our wish to take (just) a pastime, We should surely have taken it from the things nearest to Us, if We would do (such a thing)! 17 We bring forward the Truth to crush and destroy falsehood; it is doomed to be banished. Woe to you for your way of thinking about God! 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 glorify (Him) by night and day; they are never languid. 20 Have they taken earthly gods who are such that they raise up the dead to life? 21 Had there been other deities in the heavens and the earth besides God, both the heavens and the earth would have been destroyed. God, the Lord of the Throne, is too Glorious to be as they think He is. 22 He shall not be questioned as to what He does, but they shall he questioned. 23 Or have they chosen other gods beside Him? say: Bring your proof (of their godhead). This is the Reminder of those with me and those before me, but most of them know not the Truth and so they are averse. 24 Never did We send any Messenger before you to whom We did not reveal: "There is no god but Me. So serve Me alone." 25 They say: "The Most Compassionate Lord has taken to Himself a son." Glory be to Him! Those whom they so designate are only His honoured servants. 26 They cannot precede Him in word, and they act by His command. 27 He knows what is before them, and what is behind them, and they offer no intercession except for those who are acceptable, and they stand in awe and reverence of His (Glory). 28 ۞ And the one among them who says, “I am a God beside Allah” – We shall reward him with hell; this is how We punish the unjust. 29