O you who have believed, if you fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion and will remove from you your misdeeds and forgive you. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty. 29 Remember, when the infidels contrived to make you a prisoner or to murder or expel you, they plotted, but God also planned; and God's plan is the best. 30 When Our messages were read out to them, they said: "We have heard. We could certainly compose (writings) like them if we choose. They are but only tales of long ago." 31 They also said, "God, if this really is the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from heaven, or send us some other painful punishment." 32 But Allah was not to chastise them while you are in their midst; nor was Allah going to chastise them while they sought His forgiveness. 33 And what aileth them that Allah should not chastise them when they are hindering people from the Sacred Mosque, whereas they are not even the keepers thereof - its keepers are none but the God-fearing - but most of them know not. 34 And their prayer at the House was not except whistling and handclapping. So taste the punishment for what you disbelieved. 35 Surely those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (people) from the way of Allah; so they shall spend it, then it shall be to them an intense regret, then they shall be overcome; and those who disbelieve shall be driven together to hell. 36 That God may separate the bad from the good, and link the wicked together and cast them into Hell. These are verily the people who will lose. 37