but severe
to the unbelievers; they shall fight for the religion of God, and shall
not fear the obloquy of the detractor. This is the bounty of God, he
bestoweth it on whom he pleaseth: God is extensive and wise. Verily your
protector is God, and his apostle, and those who believe, who observe
the stated times of prayer, and give alms, and who bow down to worship.
And whoso taketh God, and his apostle, and the believers for his
friends, they are the party of God, and they shall be victorious. O true
believers, take not such of those to whom the scriptures were delivered
before you, or of the infidels, for your friends, who make a
laughing-stock and a jest of your religion; but fear God, if ye be true
believers; nor those who, when ye call to prayer, make a laughing-stock
and a jest of it; this they do because they are people who do not
understand. Say, O ye who have received the scriptures, do ye reject us
for any other reason than because we believe in God, and that revelation
which hath been sent down unto us, and that which was formerly sent
down, and for that the greater part of you are transgressors? Say, Shall
I denounce unto you a worse thing than this, as to the reward which ye
are to expect with God? He whom God hath cursed, and with whom he hath
been angry, having changed some of them into apes and swine, and who
worship Taghut, they are in the worse condition, and err more widely
from the straightness of the path. When they came unto you, they said,
We believe: yet they entered into your company with infidelity, and went
forth from you with the same; but God well knew what they concealed.
Thou shalt see many of them hastening unto iniquity and malice, and to
eat things forbidden; and woe unto them for what they have done. Unless
their doctors and priests forbid them uttering wickedness, and eating
things forbidden; woe unto them for what they shall have committed. The
Jews say, the hand of God is tied up. Their hands shall be tied up, and
they shall be cursed for that which they have said. Nay, his hands are
both stretched forth; he bestoweth as he pleaseth: that which had been
sent down unto thee from thy Lord, shall increase the transgression and
infidelity of many of them; and we have put enmity and hatred between
them, until the day of resurrection. So often as they shall kindle a
fire for war, God shall extinguish it; and they shall set their minds to
act corruptly in the earth, but God loveth not the corr