O People who Believe! Do not be like the disbelievers who said regarding their brothers who went on a journey or on holy war, “If they had been here with us they would not have died or been killed” – so that Allah may make it as despair in their hearts; and Allah gives life and causes death; and Allah is seeing your deeds. 156 If you are killed in the cause of God or you die, the forgiveness and mercy of God are better than all that you amass. 157 What though ye be slain or die, when unto Allah ye are gathered? 158 It was through God's mercy that you dealt with them gently; for had you been stern and hard of heart they would surely have broken away from you. So pardon them and pray that forgiveness be theirs, and seek their counsel in all affairs, And when you have come to a decision place your trust in God alone, for He loves those who place their trust in Him. 159 If God helps you, none can overcome you, but if He withdraws His help from you, who is there who can help you besides Him? In God, then, let the believers place their trust! 160 No prophet could (ever) be false to his trust. If any person is so false, He shall, on the Day of Judgment, restore what he misappropriated; then shall every soul receive its due,- whatever it earned,- and none shall be dealt with unjustly. 161 So is one who follows the will of Allah equal to one who has incurred the wrath from Allah and whose home is the fire? And what a wretched place to return! 162 They are on [entirely] different levels in the sight of God; for God sees all that they do. 163 God granted a great favor to the believers by sending a Messenger from their own people to recite to them God's revelations, to purify them of moral defects, to teach them the Book, and to give them wisdom. Before this they had lived in manifest error. 164 And was it so, when a disaster smote you, though ye had smitten (them with a disaster) twice (as great), that ye said: How is this? Say (unto them, O Muhammad): It is from yourselves. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things. 165 What befell you on the day when the two hosts met was by the leave of Allah, and in order that He might mark out those who believe 166 and those who are hypocrites. And when these hypocrites were asked: 'Come and fight in the wayof Allah', or (at least) 'defend yourselves', they answered: 'If we but knew that there would be fighting, we would certainly have followed'. They were nearer then to infidelity than to faith. They utter from their mouths what is not in their hearts. Allah knows well what they conceal. 167 (They are) the ones that say, (of their brethren slain), while they themselves sit (at ease): "If only they had listened to us they would not have been slain." Say: "Avert death from your own selves, if ye speak the truth." 168 But do not think of those that have been slain in God's cause as dead. Nay, they are alive! With their Sustainer have they their sustenance, 169 Rejoicing in what Allah has given them out of His grace and they rejoice for the sake of those who, (being left) behind them, have not yet joined them, that they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve. 170 ۞ They rejoice on account of favor from Allah and (His) grace, and that Allah will not waste the reward of the believers. 171