O YOU who have attained to faith! Spend [in Our way] out of what We have granted you as sustenance ere there come a Day when there will be no bargaining, and no friendship, and no intercession. And they who deny the truth - it is they who are evildoers! 254 God: There is no god but He, the living, eternal, self-subsisting, ever sustaining. Neither does somnolence affect Him nor sleep. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth: and who can intercede with Him except by His leave? Known to Him is all that is present before men and what is hidden (in time past and time future), and not even a little of His knowledge can they grasp except what He will. His seat extends over heavens and the earth, and He tires not protecting them: He alone is all high and supreme. 255 There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower. 256 God is the Protector of the believers; He brings them forth from the shadows into the light. And the unbelievers -- their protectors are idols, that bring them forth from the light into the shadows; those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein dwelling forever. 257