YOU ARE indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for [the good of] mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God. Now if the followers of earlier revelation had attained to [this kind of] faith, it would have been for their own good; [but only few] among them are believers, while most of them are iniquitous: 110 They can do you very little harm; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs; then they shall not be helped -- 111 Overshadowed by ignominy are they wherever they may be, save [when they bind themselves again] in a bond with God and a bond with men; for they have earned the burden of God's condemnation, and are overshadowed by humiliation: all this [has befallen them] because they persisted in denying the truth of God's messages and in slaying the prophets against all right: all this, because they rebelled [against God,] and persisted in transgressing the bounds of what is right. 112 ۞ They are not all alike; of the followers of the Book there is an upright party; they recite Allah's communications in the nighttime and they adore (Him). 113 who believe in Allah and the Last Day, who order honor and forbid dishonor and race in good works. These are the righteous. 114 Whatever good they do, for them it shall not be denied. Allah knows the cautious. 115 Indeed, those who disbelieve - never will their wealth or their children avail them against Allah at all, and those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally. 116 The example of what they spend in this worldly life is similar to the freezing cold wind which struck the fields of a nation who wronged themselves, and destroyed it completely; and Allah did not oppress them, but it is they who wronged themselves. 117 O you who believe! do not take for intimate friends from among others than your own people; they do not fall short of inflicting loss upon you; they love what distresses you; vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater still; indeed, We have made the communications clear to you, if you will understand. 118 Just think! You hold them as your friends but they do not, even though you believe in all the Scriptures. When they meet you they say: "We believe;" but when they are alone they bite their fingers in rage. Say: "Die of your rage. God is aware of the secrets of the hearts." 119 If good befalls you, it grieves them, and if an evil afflicts you, they rejoice at it; and if you are patient and guard yourselves, their scheme will not injure you in any way; surely Allah comprehends what they do. 120