Lo! they who spread the slander are a gang among you. Deem it not a bad thing for you; nay, it is good for you. Unto every man of them (will be paid) that which he hath earned of the sin; and as for him among them who had the greater share therein, his will be an awful doom. 11 Wherefore, when ye heard it, did not the believing men and believing women imagine best of their own people and say: this is a calumny manifest! 12 Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they (the slanderers) have not produced witnesses! Then with Allah they are the liars. 13 But for God's bounty to you and His mercy in the present world and the world to come there would have visited you for your mutterings a mighty chastisement. 14 When you received it with your tongues and spoke with your mouths what you had no knowledge of, and you deemed it an easy matter while with Allah it was grievous. 15 And why did you not, when you heard it, say: It does not beseem us that we should talk of it; glory be to Thee! this is a great calumny? 16 Allah admonishes you that in future you should never repeat a thing like this, if you are true Believers. 17 And Allah makes the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) plain to you, and Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. 18 There is painful punishment in this world and the next for those who like that immorality should spread among the believers, for God knows and you do not know. 19 If it was not for the bounty of Allah to you and His Mercy, and Allah is the Gentle, the Most Merciful. 20