Has God chosen some of His own creatures as daughters for Himself and has given you the preference of having sons? 16 For [thus it is:] if any of them is given the glad tiding of [the birth of] what he so readily attributes to the Most Gracious, his face darkens, and he is filled with suppressed anger: 17 What, one who is reared amid ornaments and, when the time of altercation comes, is not to be seen? 18 Do they say that the angels, who are the servants of the Beneficent God, are females? Have they witnessed their creation? Their words as such will be recorded and they will be questioned for it. 19 And they say: If the Beneficent One had (so) willed, we should not have worshipped them. They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do but guess. 20 Had We, before sending the Quran, given them a book to which they now refer as an authority? 21 No, but they say: 'We found our fathers following a creed, and by following in their footsteps we are guided. 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 ۞ "Even if I bring you a better guidance," he rejoined, "than the one you found your fathers on?" Still they said: "We do not believe in what you have brought." 24 So we took retribution from them; then see how was the end of the deniers. 25