Has Allah taken for Himself daughters out of those whom He creates and has chosen you to have 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 (Liken they then to Allah) that which is bred up in outward show, and in dispute cannot make itself plain? 18 And they appoint the angels, who are the bondmen of the Most Gracious, as females; were they present at the time of the angels’ creation? Their declaration will be now recorded and they will be questioned. 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, perchance, vouchsafed them, before this one, a revelation [to the contrary,] to which they are still holding fast? 21 Nay! they say: We found our fathers on a course, and surely we are guided by their footsteps. 22 And thus, We did not send before you any warner in a town, but those who led easy lives in it said: Surely we found our fathers on a course, and surely we are followers of 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 inflicted retribution on them, then see how was the end of the rejecters. 25