Those who brought up that slander were a band from among you. Do not regard it as a misfortune, for it is good for you. Every one of them shall be held to account for the sin he has committed; and he who took the greater part in it shall have a terrible punishment. 11 Why did not the believers, men and women, when ye heard it, think good of their own own folk, and say: It is a manifest untruth? 12 Why did the slanderers not bring four witnesses (to prove their charge)? Now that they have not brought witnesses, they themselves are liars in the sight of Allah. 13 Had it not been for the Grace of Allah and His Mercy unto you in this world and in the Hereafter, a great torment would have touched you for that whereof you had spoken. 14 When ye were publishing it with your tongues and saying that with your mouths of which ye had no knowledge. Ye deemed it light, and it was with Allah mighty! 15 And wherefore, when ye heard it, did ye not say: it is not for us to speak thereof, hallowed be Thou! that is a slander mighty! 16 Allah exhorts you never again to repeat the like, if you are believers. 17 Allah makes plain to you His verses, and Allah is the Knower, the Wise. 18 Those who love that indecency should be spread abroad concerning them that believe -- there awaits them a painful chastisement in the present world and the world to come; and God knows, and you know not. 19 And were it not for God's favour upon you and His grace, and that God is compassionate, a dispenser of grace...! 20