Or has He taken, out of what He has created, daughters and chosen you for [having] sons? 16 Yet when news of (a daughter) they had reserved for Ar-Rahman comes to one of them, his face is blackened (with shame), and he grieves in silence inwardly. 17 What! that which is made in ornaments and which in contention is unable to make plain speech! 18 And they make the angels who themselves are slaves to the Most Beneficent (Allah) females. Did they witness their creation? Their evidence will be 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 a book before it so that they hold fast to it? 21 In fact they say: "We found our fathers following a certain way, and are guided by their footprints." 22 And thus it is: whenever We sent, before thy time, a warner to any community, those of its people who had lost themselves entirely in the pursuit of pleasures would always say: "Behold, we found our forefathers agreed on what to believe - and verily, it is but in their footsteps that we follow!" 23 ۞ (And the warner) said: What! Even though I bring you better guidance than that ye found your fathers following? They answered: Lo! in what ye bring we are disbelievers. 24 So We inflicted retribution on them, then see how was the end of the rejecters. 25