So, as soon as they sensed Our punishment (approaching them), they started fleeing from it.

(It was said to them,) “Do not flee, and go back to the luxuries you were made to enjoy, and to your dwellings. May be you are asked questions.”

They said, “Alas for us! We were wrongdoers indeed.”

Then, this continued to be their cry till We turned them into stubble, totally extinguished.

We did not create the heavens and the earth and what lies between them for play.

Had We intended to have a pastime, We would have had it from Our own, if We were ever to do so.

Instead, We launch the truth against falsehood, which gets it smashed, and in no time it is gone. Alas to you for what you describe!

To Him belong all those in the heavens and the earth. And those who are near to Him are not arrogant against His worship, nor are they sluggish.

They proclaim His purity night and day, never slackening.

Or have they adopted gods from the earth, who raise the dead?

Had there been gods beside Allah, in the heavens and the earth, both of them would have fallen in disorder. So pure is Allah, the Lord of the Throne, from what they describe.