The hypocritical men and the hypocritical women are all alike; they enjoin evil and forbid good and withhold their hands; they have forsaken Allah, so He has forsaken them; surely the hypocrites are the transgressors. 67 For the hypocrites and the unbelievers, God has prepared hell wherein they will live forever. Hell is their proper punishment. God has condemned them and they will suffer a permanent torment 68 Like ye are unto those before you: mightier were they than you in prowess and more abundant in riches and children. They enjoyed their portion awhile, so enjoy your portion awhile even as those before you enjoyed their portion awhile, and ye plunged about even as they plunged about. Those! their works have come to naught in the world and the Hereafter, and those! they are the losers. 69 Have, then, the stories of those who preceded them never come within the ken of these [hypocrites and deniers of the truth]? - [the stories] of Noah's people, and of [the tribes of] 'Ad and Thamud, and of Abraham's people, and of the folk of Madyan, and of the cities that were overthrown? To [all of] them their apostles had come with all evidence of the truth [but they rejected them:] and so it was not God who wronged them [by His punishment,] but it was they who wronged themselves. 70 The believers, men and women, are Auliya' (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another, they enjoin (on the people) Al-Ma'ruf (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do), and forbid (people) from Al-Munkar (i.e. polytheism and disbelief of all kinds, and all that Islam has forbidden); they perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat) and give the Zakat, and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah will have His Mercy on them. Surely Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise. 71 God has promised the believers, men and women, gardens underneath which rivers flow, forever therein to dwell, and goodly dwelling-places in the Gardens of Eden; and greater, God's good pleasure; that is the mighty triumph. 72