۞ God covenanted the people of Israel and raised twelve leaders among them, and said: "I shall verily be with you. If you fulfil your devotional obligations, pay the zakat and believe in My apostles and support them, and give a goodly loan to God, I shall certainly absolve you of your evil, and admit you to gardens with streams of running water. But whosoever among you denies after this, will have wandered away from the right path." 12 For their disregard of their solemn covenant with God, We condemned the Israelites and made their hearts hard as stone. Now they displace the words of God and have forgotten their share of the guidance that they had received. Still you receive news of the treachery of all but a few of them. Forgive and ignore them. God loves the righteous ones. 13 We also made a covenant with those who say, "We are Christians." But they too have forgotten much of what they were enjoined. So, We have put enmity and hatred between them till the Day of Judgement; and soon God will declare to them what they have been doing. 14 O People of the Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you, expounding unto you much of that which ye used to hide in the Scripture, and forgiving much. now hath come unto you light from Allah and plain Scripture, 15 with which Allah guides those who seek His pleasure to the Paths of Peace. By His permission He takes them out from darkness to the light, and guides them to a Straight Path. 16 Those who say that Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary are indeed those who disbelieved. Say: 'Who then could prevent any thing from Allah, if He willed to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, together with his mother and all the people of the earth? For Allah is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them. He creates what He will and has power over all things' 17 Say the Jews and Christians, 'We are the sons of God, and His beloved ones.' Say: 'Why then does He chastise you for your sins? No; you are mortals, of His creating; He forgives whom He will, and He chastises whom He will.' For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them; to Him is the homecoming. 18 O people of the Book! surely there hath come unto you Our apostle, after a cessation of the apostles, expounding unto you, lest ye may say: there came not unto us a bearer of glad tidings nor a warner. So now there surely hath come unto you a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and Allah is over everything Potent. 19