Or chooseth He daughters of all that He hath created, and honoureth He you with sons? 16 When one of them is given the glad news of the birth of a daughter, which they believe to be the only kind of child that the Beneficent God can have, his face blackens with anger. 17 (As such they attribute to Allah) who is brought up among ornaments but when disputes arise are powerless. 18 And they make the angels who are the bondmen of the Compassionate females. Have they witnessed their creation? Their testimony will be written down, and they will be questioned. 19 Yet they say: "Had [not] the Most Gracious so willed, we would never have worshipped them!" [But] they cannot have any knowledge of [His having willed] such a thing: they do nothing but guess. 20 Did We give them a Scripture before this to which they are holding fast? 21 Rather, they say, "Indeed, we found our fathers upon a religion, and we are in their footsteps [rightly] guided." 22 Just in the same way, whenever We sent a Warner before thee to any people, the wealthy ones among them said: "We found our fathers following a certain religion, and we will certainly follow in their footsteps." 23 ۞ The prophet said, “What! Even if I bring to you a path better than what you found your forefathers following?”; they said, “We do not believe in whatever you have been sent with.” 24 So We wreaked Our vengeance on them: now see what was the end of those who rejected [the Truth]! 25