Lo! they who spread the slander are a gang among you. Deem it not a bad thing for you; nay, it is good for you. Unto every man of them (will be paid) that which he hath earned of the sin; and as for him among them who had the greater share therein, his will be an awful doom. 11 Wherefore, when ye heard it, did not the believing men and believing women imagine best of their own people and say: this is a calumny manifest! 12 Why did they [who slandered] not produce for it four witnesses? And when they do not produce the witnesses, then it is they, in the sight of Allah, who are the liars. 13 Had there not been Allah's grace upon you and His mercy in the world and the Hereafter, surely there would have touched you, for that wherein ye had rushed, torment mighty. 14 When you were spreading it with your tongues and saying with your mouths things of which you had no knowledge, you considered it to be a trivial matter, but, in God's sight, it was very serious. 15 Why did you not say when you heard it: "It is not for us to speak of it? God preserve us, it is a great calumny!" 16 Allah warns you against returning to the likes of this [conduct], ever, if you should be believers. 17 God explains the commandments to you. God is all knowing and wise. 18 Lo! those who love that slander should be spread concerning those who believe, theirs will be a painful punishment in the world and the Hereafter. Allah knoweth. Ye know not. 19 But for the grace of God and His mercy (much harm would have been done); yet God is compassionate and kind. 20