And how many a city have We overthrown which were doing wrong, and We caused to grow up thereafter another nation! 11 Whensoever they sensed Our punishment they fled from them. 12 'Run not! Return you unto the luxury that you exulted in, and your dwelling-places; haply you shall be questioned.' 13 They said: "Woe to us; surely we were wrong-doers." 14 So they kept saying this until We made them cut off, extinguished. 15 We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them for a (mere) play. 16 [for,] had We willed to indulge in a pastime, We would indeed have produced it from within Ourselves - if such had been Our will at all! 17 In fact We strike the truth against the false, which shatters it, and it disappears. Woe to you for what you attribute (to Him)! 18 To Him belongs whosoever dwells in the heavens and on earth. Those (angels) that are with Him neither disdain to serve Him out of pride, nor do they weary of it. 19 They never fail to exalt Him either at night or in the day. 20 And yet some people choose to worship certain earthly things or beings as deities that [are supposed to] resurrect [the dead; and they fail to realize that,] 21 had there been in heaven or on earth any deities other than God, both [those realms would surely have fallen into ruin! But limitless in His glory is God, enthroned in His awesome almightiness far] above anything that men may devise by way of definition! 22 He shall be questioned not as to that which He doth, while they shall be questioned. 23 Have they taken gods, other than Him? Say: 'Bring us your proof! Here is the Remembrance of he who is with me and the Remembrance of those before me' But no, most of them do not know the truth, therefore they turn away. 24 And We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, "There is no deity except Me, so worship Me." 25 And they say: The Beneficent Allah has taken to Himself a son. Glory be to Him. Nay! they are honored servants 26 they speak not until He has spoken unto them, and [whenever they act,] they act at His behest. 27 He knows what was there before them and what came after them; and they did not intercede for any one but whom He willed, and they were filled with awe of Him. 28 ۞ Whoever of them should say, "I am a deity besides Him," shall be requited with Hell. Thus do We reward the wrongdoers. 29