O Prophet! Strive against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be severe to them. Hell shall be their abode; what an evil destination! 73 [The hypocrites] swear by God that they have said nothing [wrong]; yet most certainly have they uttered a saying which amounts to a denial of the truth, and have [thus] denied the truth after [having professed] their self-surrender to God: for they were aiming at something which was beyond their reach. And they could find no fault [with the Faith] save that God had enriched them and [caused] His Apostle [to enrich them] out of His bounty! Hence, if they repent, it will be for their own good. But if they turn away, God will cause them to suffer grievous suffering in this world and in the life to come, and they will find no helper on earth, and none to give [them] succour. 74 ۞ Some of them made a covenant with God: "If You give us in Your bounty we shall give alms and be upright." 75 Nevertheless, when He gave them of His bounty they were niggardly of it, and turned away, swerving aside. 76 whereupon He causes hypocrisy to take root in their hearts, [therein to remain] until the Day on which they shall meet Him" - because they have failed to fulfil the vow which they had made unto God, and because they were wont to lie. 77 Do they not know that God knows [all] their hidden thoughts and their secret confabulations, and that God knows fully all the things that are beyond the reach of human perception'? 78 As for those who ridicule such believers as give alms freely for the sake of God and taunt those who find nothing to give save that which they earn through their toil, God will cause their ridicule to rebound on them: they shall have a painful punishment. 79 Whether you plead forgiveness for them or not, God will not forgive them, even though you plead seventy times, for they disbelieved in God and His Apostle; and God does not show transgressors the way. 80