۞ Say: What! do you indeed disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two periods, and do you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of the Worlds. 9 He placed therein (i.e. the earth) firm mountains from above it, and He blessed it, and measured therein its sustenance (for its dwellers) in four Days equal (i.e. all these four 'days' were equal in the length of time), for all those who ask (about its creation). 10 Then He lifted Himself to heaven when it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth, "Come willingly, or unwillingly!" They said, "We come willingly." 11 And He completed them as seven heavens within two days and inspired in each heaven its command. And We adorned the nearest heaven with lamps and as protection. That is the determination of the Exalted in Might, the Knowing. 12 Then if they Still turn away, say thou; I warn you of a calamity like the calamity of the 'Aad and Thamud. 13 When their Noble Messengers approached them from front and from behind saying, "Do not worship any one except Allah"; they said, "If our Lord willed, He would surely have sent down angels – we therefore deny whatever you have been sent with.” 14 As for the tribe of 'Aad - they grew stiff-necked on the earth without justification, and said: who is mightier than we in strength? Saw they not that Allah who created them, He was Mightier than they in strength? And Our signs they were wont to gainsay. 15 We therefore sent a violent thunderstorm towards them in their days of misfortune, in order to make them taste a disgraceful punishment in the life of this world; and indeed the punishment of the Hereafter is more disgracing, and they will not be helped. 16 And as for [the tribe of] Thamud, We offered them guidance, but they chose blindness in preference to guidance: and so the thunderbolt of shameful suffering fell upon them as an outcome of all [the evil] that they had wrought; 17 And We saved those who believed and used to fear Allah, keep their duty to Him and avoid evil. 18