What! has He taken daughters to Himself of what He Himself creates and chosen you to have sons? 16 And if one of them is given the glad tidings of what he professes regarding the Most Gracious, his face blackens and he is mournful! 17 ["Do you ascribe to God] one who is brought up among ornaments and who cannot produce a cogent argument?" 18 And they appoint the angels, who are the bondmen of the Most Gracious, as females; were they present at the time of the angels’ creation? Their declaration will be now recorded and they will be questioned. 19 They say, 'Had the All-merciful so willed, we would not have served them.' They have no knowledge of that; they are only conjecturing. 20 Or have We given them some Book before this, to which they hold fast? 21 Nay, but they say: "Behold, We found our forefathers agreed on what to believe - and verily, it is in their footsteps that we find our guidance!" 22 Even so We sent never before thee any warner into any city, except that its men who lived at ease said, 'We indeed found our fathers upon a community, and we are following upon their traces.' 23 ۞ Each Prophet asked them: “Will you do so even if we were to show you a way better than the way of your forefathers?” They answered: “We disbelieve in the religion with which you have been sent.” 24 So We inflicted retribution on them, then see how was the end of the rejecters. 25