O believers, do not make friends with those who mock and make a sport of your faith, who were given the Book before you, and with unbelievers; and fear God if you truly believe; 57 And when you call to prayer they make it a mockery and a joke; this is because they are a people who do not understand. 58 Say to them: "O people of the Book, what reason have you for disliking us other than that we believe in God and what has been sent down to us, and was sent down before, and because most of you are disobedient?" 59 Say: "Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil;- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!" 60 When they come to you, they say: "We believe." But in fact they enter with (an intention of) disbelief and they go out with the same. And Allah knows all what they were hiding. 61 And you will see many of them rushing towards sin and oppression, and to devour the forbidden; undoubtedly what they do is extremely evil. 62 Why do not the learned men and the doctors of law prohibit them from their speaking of what is sinful and their eating of what is unlawfully acquired? Certainly evil is that which they work. 63 And the Jews said, “Allah’s hand is tied"; may their hands be tied – and they are accursed for saying so! In fact, both His hands* are free, He bestows upon whomever He wills; and O dear Prophet, this Book which has been sent down upon you from your Lord will cause many of them to advance in their rebellion and disbelief; and We have instilled enmity and hatred between them till the Day of Resurrection; whenever they ignite the flame of war, Allah extinguishes it, and they strive to create chaos in the land; and Allah does not love the mischievous. (* This is a metaphor used to express Allah’s power). 64 If the people of the Book had believed and feared, We would surely have absolved them of their sins, and admitted them to gardens of delight. 65 And if they had kept up the Taurat and the Injeel and that which was revealed to them from their Lord, they would certainly have eaten from above them and from beneath their feet there is a party of them keeping to the moderate course, and (as for) most of them, evil is that which they do 66