O PROPHET! Strive hard against the deniers of the truth and the hypocrites, and be adamant with them. And [if they do not repent,] their goal shall be hell - and how vile a journey's end! 73 They swear by Allah that they said nothing. Yet they did utter the word of disbelief and disbelieved after they had submitted. They intended what they never attained to, and took revenge only that Allah enriched them, and His Messenger, of His Bounty. If they repent, it will indeed be better for them; but if they turn away, Allah will sternly punish them both in this world and in the Everlasting Life. They have none on earth to protect or help them. 74 ۞ And of them is he who made a covenant with Allah (saying): If He give us of His bounty we will give alms and become of the righteous. 75 Then when He gave them out of His grace, they became niggardly therewith and turned away as backsliders. 76 So He punished them by putting hypocrisy into their hearts till the Day whereon they shall meet Him, because they broke that (covenant with Allah) which they had promised Him and because they used to tell lies. 77 Have they not realised that God knows their secrets and their confidential talk, and that God has the knowledge of unknown things? 78 As for those who ridicule such believers as give alms freely for the sake of God and taunt those who find nothing to give save that which they earn through their toil, God will cause their ridicule to rebound on them: they shall have a painful punishment. 79 Whether you (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him) ask forgiveness for them* or not ask forgiveness for them; even if you ask forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will not forgive them; that is because they disbelieved in Allah and His Noble Messenger, and Allah does not guide the sinful. (* for the hypocrites.) 80