۞ Virtue does not consist in whether you face towards the East or the West; virtue means believing in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book and the prophets; the virtuous are those who, despite their love for it, give away their wealth to their relatives and to orphans and the very poor, and to travellers and those who ask [for charity], and to set slaves free, and who attend to their prayers and pay the alms, and who keep their pledges when they make them, and show patience in hardship and adversity, and in times of distress. Such are the true believers; and such are the God-fearing. 177 O Believers, the law of retribution has been prescribed for you in cases of murder; if a free man commits a murder, the free man shall be punished for it and a slave for a slave: likewise if a woman is guilty of murder the same shall be accountable for it. But in case the injured brother is willing to show leniency to the murderer, the blood money should be decided in accordance with the common law and the murderer should pay it in a genuine way. This is an allowance and mercy from your Lord. Now there shall be a painful torment for anyone who transgresses the limits after this. O men of understanding. 178 In [this law of] retribution there is life for you, O people of understanding, so that perhaps you will be mindful of God. 179 Prescribed for you when death approaches [any] one of you if he leaves wealth [is that he should make] a bequest for the parents and near relatives according to what is acceptable - a duty upon the righteous. 180 Then if any man changes it after hearing it, the sin shall rest upon those who change it; surely God is All-hearing, All-knowing. 181 He who suspects wrong or partiality on the part of the testator and brings about a settlement, does not incure any guilt, for God is verily forgiving and merciful. 182