۞ Say: "Do you refuse to believe in Him who created the earth in two spans of time, and set up compeers to Him, the Lord of all the worlds? 9 In four days He placed the mountains on it, blessed it, and equally measured out sustenance for those who seek sustenance. 10 Then He turned to the heavens, and it was smoke. So He said to it and the earth: "Come with willing obedience or perforce." They said: "We come willingly." 11 So He determined them as seven heavens in two days, and revealed its commandment in every heaven.' 12 But if they turn away, then say, "I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt [that struck] 'Aad and Thamud. 13 When their Messengers came to them from before them and behind them, (saying): 'Worship none except Allah' they answered: 'Had it been the will of our Lord, He would have sent down angels. So we disbelieve in the Message with which you were sent' 14 Now the 'Ad behaved arrogantly through the land, against (all) truth and reason, and said: "Who is superior to us in strength?" What! did they not see that Allah, Who created them, was superior to them in strength? But they continued to reject Our Signs! 15 Therefor We let loose on them a raging wind in evil days, that We might make them taste the torment of disgrace in the life of the world. And verily the doom of the Hereafter will be more shameful, 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 But We saved those who believed and took heed for themselves. 18