Has He then taken daughters out of His own creation and chosen sons for you? 16 When news is brought to one of them of (the birth of) what he sets up as a likeness to (Allah) Most Gracious, his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief! 17 Does God choose for Himself the kind of children who grow up wearing ornaments and who are not strong enough to defend their rights? 18 And they make into females angels who themselves serve Allah. Did they witness their creation? Their evidence will be recorded, and they will be called to account! 19 They say, "If the All Merciful had so willed, we would not have worshipped them." They have no knowledge of that. They are only conjecturing. 20 Or have We given them any Book before this (the Quran), to which they are holding fast? 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 ۞ Say: 'What, though I should bring you a better guidance than you found your fathers upon?' They say, 'We disbelieve in that you were sent with.' 24 And so We inflicted Our retribution on them: and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth! 25