Believers! If you follow those who deny the Truth, they will drive you back on your heels, and you will turn about, losers. 149 God is your Guardian and the best Helper. 150 We shall strike terror into the hearts of unbelievers for ascribing compeers to God for which He has sent down no sanction. Hell is their residence, the evil abode of the unjust. 151 God certainly fulfilled His promise to you when you were fighting the unbelievers, by His permission. Even after We showed you what you wanted, you began to lose courage, started quarreling with each other, and disobeyed God's orders. Some of you want worldly gains and others of you want rewards in the hereafter. Then He let you face defeat in order to test you. However, He forgave you. God is Gracious to the believers. 152 ۞ [Remember the time] when you fled, paying no heed to anyone, while at your rear the Apostle was calling out to you - wherefore He requited you with woe in return for [the Apostle's] woe, so that you should not grieve [merely] over what had escaped you, nor over what had befallen you: for God is aware of all that you do. 153 Then, after sorrow, He sent down unto you a security - slumber coming over a section of you; while another section, concerned about themselves, bethought of Allah unjustly: the thought of paganism. They said: have we aught at all of the affair? Say thou: the affair is wholly Allah's. They hide within themselves that which they disclose not unto thee, saying: had we aught of the affair, we would not have been slain here. Say thou: had ye stayed in your houses, even then those decreed to be slain would surely have gone forth to their places of slaughter; and this happened in order that he might prove that which was in your breasts, and purge that which was in your hearts; and Allah is Knower of that which is in the breasts. 154 Those of you who turned back on the day the two hosts met (i.e. the battle of Uhud), it was Shaitan (Satan) who caused them to backslide (run away from the battlefield) because of some (sins) they had earned. But Allah, indeed, has forgiven them. Surely, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Forbearing. 155