The hypocrites seek to outwit God -- but it is He who outwits them. And when they stand up for prayer, they do so reluctantly and to be seen by others, and they hardly remember God at all. 142 They are hesitant people belonging to neither side. You can find no other way for one whom God has caused to go astray. 143 O you who have believed, do not take the disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do you wish to give Allah against yourselves a clear case? 144 Verily, the hypocrites shall be in the lowest depth of the fire, and thou wilt find none who could succour them. 145 except those who re-pent and mend their ways and hold fast to Allah and make their faith exclusive to Allah. Those people shall be numbered with the believers and Allah will certainly bestow on the believers a great reward. 146 What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe? And ever is Allah Appreciative and Knowing. 147 ۞ Allah does not like speaking evil publicly unless one has been wronged. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. 148 If you display good or hide it, or pardon an evil, surely, Allah is the Pardoner, the Powerful. 149 Those who disbelieve in Allah and His Noble Messengers, and seek to cause division between Allah and His Noble Messengers, and say, “We believe in some and disbelieve in others,” and wish to choose a way between faith and disbelief; – 150 They are in truth (equally) unbelievers; and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment. 151 And those who believe in Allah, and His Messengers and do not divide between any of them; to those, We shall surely give them their wages. Allah is the Forgiver, the Most Merciful. 152