۞ Say: What! do you indeed disbelieve in Him Who created the earth in two periods, and do you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of the Worlds. 9 (After creating the earth) He set up firm mountains on it, blessed it, and provided it with sustenance in proportion to the needs of all who seek (sustenance). All this was done in four days. 10 Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. 11 Then He made them seven heavens in two days and revealed to each heaven its law. And We adorned the lower heaven with lamps, and firmly secured it. All this is the firm plan of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing. 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 the messengers came to them from before them and behind them, saying, 'Worship none but God!" They said, "If our Lord had willed, He would have sent down angels [to us]. Therefore, we shall never believe in your message.'" 14 As for the tribe of 'Ad, they behaved arrogantly in the land without any justification and said, "Who is mightier than we in power?" Did they not see that God, who created them, was mightier than they in power? Still they continued to deny Our signs, 15 So We sent on them a furious wind in unlucky days, that We may make them taste the chastisement of abasement in this world's life; and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is much more abasing, and they shall not be helped. 16 As for Thamud, We bestowed guidance upon them, but they preferred to remain blind rather than be guided. At last a humiliating scourge overtook them on account of their misdeeds. 17 And We rescued those who accepted faith and were pious. 18