Allah knows what every female carries and what the wombs lose [prematurely] or exceed. And everything with Him is by due measure. 8 Knower of the hidden and the manifest! the Great! the Exalted. 9 Equal unto him is he among you who hideth the word and he who publisheth it, and he who hideth himself in the night and he who goeth about freely in the day. 10 Each has guardian angels before him and behind him, who watch him at God's command. God does not change the condition of a people's lot, unless they change what is in their hearts. But when God decrees punishment for a people, none can ward it off. Besides Him, they have no protector. 11 HE IT IS who displays before you the lightning, to give rise to [both] fear and hope, and calls heavy clouds into being; 12 Nay, thunder repeateth His praises, and so do the angels, with awe: He flingeth the loud-voiced thunder-bolts, and therewith He striketh whomsoever He will, yet these (are the men) who (dare to) dispute about Allah, with the strength of His power (supreme)! 13 To Him is due the true prayer; and those whom they pray to besides Allah give them no answer, but (they are) like one who stretches forth his two hands towards water that it may reach his mouth, but it will not reach it; and the prayer of the unbelievers is only in error. 14 And unto Allah (Alone) falls in prostration whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows in the mornings and in the afternoons. ۩ 15 Ask them: "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?" (They will) say: "God." Say: "Then why do you take protectors besides Him who have no power over their own gain or loss?" Say: "Can a blind man and one who can see be equal? Or, darkness and light be the same? Or, have those they have appointed equal of God created, as He has created, so that the (two) creations look alike to them?" Say: "God is the creator of everything. He is One, the omnipotent." 16 He sends down water from the sky that fills riverbeds to overflowing, each according to its measure. The torrent carries along swelling foam, akin to what rises from smelted ore from which man makes ornaments and tools. God thus depicts truth and falsehood. The scum is cast away, but whatever is of use to man remains behind. God thus speaks in parables. 17 For those who obey their Lord is excellence. For those who fail to obey, the reckoning will be hard, even if they possess and give as ransom all that there is on the earth, and as much more; and Hell will be their abode: How wretched is its wide expanse! 18