How many a community that dealt unjustly have We shattered, and raised up after them another folk! 11 When they found Our torment approaching them they started to run away from the town. 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; surely we were wrong-doers." 14 And that declaration of theirs did not cease until We made them [as] a harvest [mowed down], extinguished [like a fire]. 15 We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them for a (mere) play. 16 Had We wanted to play games, We could have certainly done so with things at hand. 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 To Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and the earth; and those who are with Him wax not too proud to do Him service neither grow weary, 19 they extol His limitless glory by night and by day, never flagging [therein]. 20 Have they taken deities from the earth who can bring the dead to life? 21 had there been in heaven or on earth any deities other than God, both [those realms would surely have fallen into ruin! But limitless in His glory is God, enthroned in His awesome almightiness far] above anything that men may devise by way of definition! 22 He cannot be questioned concerning what He does and they shall be questioned. 23 Have they taken gods other than Him? Say, (O Muhammad): "Bring forth your proof! Here is the Book with admonition for those of my time and there are also scriptures with admonition for people before me." But most people do not know the Truth, and have, therefore, turned away from it. 24 And We sent not before thee an apostle but We revealed unto him that there is no god but I, so worship Me. 25 They say, "The All Merciful has taken a son!" Glory be to Him! They are only His honoured servants: 26 They cannot precede Him in word, and they act by His command. 27 He knows all that is in front of them and all that is behind them. (These servants of God) will not intercede with Him for anyone without His permission and they tremble in awe (before His greatness). 28 ۞ If any of them says, 'I am a god apart from Him', such a one We recompense with Gehenna; even so We recompense the evildoers. 29