Believers! Do not seek the friendship of those who were given the Book before you or the disbelievers who ridicule your religion and make a jest of it. Have fear of God, if you are true believers. 57 And when you call for Prayer, they take it for a mockery and sport. That is because they are a people who do not understand. 58 Say: "O followers of earlier revelation! Do you find fault with us for no other reason than that we believe in God [alone,] and in that which He has bestowed from on high upon us as well as that which He has bestowed aforetime? - or [is it only] because most of you are iniquitous?" 59 Say, "Shall I tell you who will receive a worse reward from God? Those whom God has rejected and with whom He has been angry. They were condemned as apes and swine and those who worship the evil. These are in the worst plight and farthest astray from the right path." 60 When they come to you they say: "We believe;" but unbelieving they came and unbelieving go; and God is aware of what they conceal in their hearts. 61 You see many of them race with one another in sin and transgression and devour the unlawful. Evil is what they do. 62 Why do not the rabbis and the priests forbid their evil-speaking and their devouring of illicit gain? Verily evil is their handiwork. 63 The Jews say: "Bound are the hands of God." Tied be their own hands, and damned may they be for saying what they say! In fact, both His hands are open wide: He spends of His bounty in any way He please. But what your Lord has revealed to you will only increase their rebellion and unbelief. So We have caused enmity and hatred among them (which will last) till the Day of Resurrection. As often as they ignite the fires of war they are extinguished by God. Yet they rush around to spread corruption in the land; but God does not love those who are corrupt. 64 If the People of the Book had believed and kept from evil, We would pardon them their sins and admit them to the Gardens of Delight. 65 Had they performed the Torah and the Gospel, and what was sent down to them from their Lord, they would have eaten both what was above them, and what was beneath their feet. Some of them are a just nation; but many of them -- evil are the things they do. 66