You are the best nation ever brought forth to men, bidding to honour, and forbidding dishonour, and believing in God. Had the People of the Book believed, it were better for them; some of them are believers, but the most of them are ungodly. 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 Stuck upon them is abjection wheresoever they may be come upon, except in a compact with Allah and a compact with men; and they drew upon themselves indignation from Allah; and stuck upon them is poverty. That is because they have been disbelieving in the signs of Allah, and slaying the prophets without justice. That is because they disobeyed and have been trespassing. 112 ۞ Yet they are not all alike. There are among the People of the Book an upstanding nation that recite the verses of Allah (the Koran) throughout the night and prostrate themselves, 113 who believe in Allah and the Last Day, who order honor and forbid dishonor and race in good works. These are the righteous. 114 And whatever good they do, they will not be denied the meed thereof. Allah is Aware of those who ward off (evil). 115 (As for) those who disbelieve, surely neither their wealth nor their children shall avail them in the least against Allah; and these are the inmates of the fire; therein they shall abide. 116 The likeness of that which they expend in this life of the world is as the likeness of a wind wherein is intense cold, it befalleth the tilth of a people who have wronged themselves, and destroyeth it. Allah wronged them not, but themselves they wrong. 117 O ye who believe! Take not for intimates others than your own folk, who would spare no pains to ruin you; they love to hamper you. Hatred is revealed by (the utterance of) their mouths, but that which their breasts hide is greater. We have made plain for you the revelations if ye will understand. 118 It is you who love them, but they do not love you; you believe in all the revealed Books. When they meet you, they say, "We believe," but when they are alone, they bite their fingertips with rage. Say, "Die of rage!" God is aware of what your hearts contain. 119 Whenever something good happens to you, it grieves them; but when evil befalls you, they rejoice. If you persevere and fear God, their designs will never harm you in the least: God encompasses all that they do. 120