YOU ARE indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for [the good of] mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God. Now if the followers of earlier revelation had attained to [this kind of] faith, it would have been for their own good; [but only few] among them are believers, while most of them are iniquitous: 110 They can do you very little harm; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs; then they shall not be helped -- 111 abasement shall attend them wherever they are found, unless they make a covenant with God or with man. They have incurred God's wrath and have been utterly humbled, because they have persistently disbelieved in God's signs and killed prophets unjustly. This resulted from their disobedience and their habit of transgression. 112 ۞ Yet they are not all alike; some of the People of the Book are a nation upstanding, that recite God's signs in the watches of the night, bowing themselves, 113 They believe in Allah and in the Last Day and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, and hasten to excel each other in doing good. These are among the righteous. 114 And whatever good they do, they shall never be denied the reward thereof: for, God has full knowledge of those who are conscious of Him. 115 As for those who denied the Truth, neither their possessions nor their children will avail them against Allah. They are the people of the Fire, and therein they shall abide. 116 What they spend in the life of this (material) world May be likened to a wind which brings a nipping frost: It strikes and destroys the harvest of men who have wronged their own souls: it is not Allah that hath wronged them, but they wrong themselves. 117 O Ye who believe! take not for an intimate anyone besides yourselves; they shall not be remiss in doing you mischief. Fain would they that which distresseth you. Surely their malice hath shewn itself by their mouths, and that which their breasts conceal is greater still. Surely We have expounded unto you the signs, if ye will but reflect. 118 Listen! It is you who love them and they do not love you, whereas the fact is that you believe in all the Books; when they meet you they say, “We believe”; and when they are alone they chew their fingers at you with rage; say, “Die in your frenzy!” Allah knows well what lies within the hearts. 119 If you are visited by good fortune, it vexes them; but if you are smitten by evil, they rejoice at it. Yet if you are patient and godfearing, their guile will hurt you nothing; God encompasses the things they do. 120