Indeed, the hypocrites [think to] deceive Allah, but He is deceiving them. And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily, showing [themselves to] the people and not remembering Allah except a little, 142 They dangle between the one and the other (faith and disbelief), and belong neither to these nor to those completely. And he whom Allah lets go astray, for him you can find no way. 143 O ye who believe! Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Do ye wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves? 144 Lo! the hypocrites (will be) in the lowest deep of the Fire, and thou wilt find no helper for them; 145 But those who repent and amend, and hold firmly to God, and are sincere and wholly obedient to God, are surely with the faithful; and God will bestow on the faithful a great reward. 146 Why should God punish you if you acknowledge the truth and believe? God is responsive to gratitude and is cognisant. 147 ۞ Allah does not like speaking evil publicly unless one has been wronged. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. 148 (Even though you have the right to speak evil if you are wronged), if you keep doing good -whether openly or secretly -or at least pardon the evil (then that is the attribute of Allah). Allah is All-Pardoning and He has all the power to chastise. 149 Those who deny God and His messengers and seek to make a distinction between God and His messengers and say, "We believe in some messengers and disbelieve in others", and desire to adopt a position in between. 150 Such are disbelievers in truth; and for disbelievers We prepare a shameful doom. 151 And those who believe in Allah and His apostles and differentiate not between any of them, anon We shall give them their hire; and Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful. 152