O believers, if you follow the path shown by God, He will give you a standard (of right and wrong), and overlook your sins, and forgive you. God is abounding in benevolence. 29 And recall how those who disbelieved schemed against you to take you captive, or kill you, or drive you away. They schemed and Allah did also scheme. Allah is the best of those who scheme. 30 And when Our verses are recited to them they say, “Yes, we have heard – if we wanted we could also say something like this – these are nothing but stories of former people!” 31 And [remember] when they said, "O Allah, if this should be the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky or bring us a painful punishment." 32 But Allah was not to punish them whilst you were living in their midst. Nor would Allah punish them if they repeatedly ask forgiveness of Him. 33 But what prevents Allah from chastising them now when they are hindering people from the Holy Mosque, even though they are not even its true guardians. For its true guardians are none but the God-fearing, though most of them do not know that. 34 And their prayer near the Kaa’bah is nothing except whistling and clapping; “So now taste the punishment – the result of your disbelief.” 35 Those who are bent on denying the truth are spending their wealth in debarring others from the path of God. They will continue to spend it in this way till, in the end, this spending will become a source of intense regret for them, and then they will be overcome. And those who denied the truth will be gathered together in Hell. 36 In order that Allah may distinguish the wicked (disbelievers, polytheists and doers of evil deeds) from the good (believers of Islamic Monotheism and doers of righteous deeds), and put the wicked (disbelievers, polytheists and doers of evil deeds) one on another, heap them together and cast them into Hell. Those! it is they who are the losers. 37