۞ How, then, could you be of two minds about the hypocrites, seeing that God [Himself] has disowned them because of their guilt? Do you, perchance, seek to guide those whom God has let go astray - when for him whom God lets go astray thou canst never find any way? 88 They would love to see you deny the truth even as they have denied it, so that you should be like them. Do not, therefore, take them for your allies until they forsake the domain of evil for the sake of God; and if they revert to [open] enmity, seize them and slay them wherever you may find them. And do not take any of them for your ally or giver of succour, 89 unless it be such [of them] as have ties with people to whom you yourselves are bound by a covenant, or such as come unto you because their hearts shrink from [the thought of] making war either on you or on their own folk - although, if God had willed to make them stronger than you, they would certainly have made war on you. Thus, if they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you to harm them. 90 You will now find others who desire that they should be safe from you and also safe from their own people; whenever their people turn them towards war, they fall headlong into it; so if they do not avoid (confronting) you nor submit an offer of peace nor restrain their hands, seize them and kill them wherever you find them; and they are the ones against whom We have given you clear authority. 91