O believers, take not as your friends those of them, who were given the Book before you, and the unbelievers, who take your religion in mockery and as a sport -- and fear God, if you are believers -- 57 And when you call to prayer they make it a mockery and a joke; this is because they are a people who do not understand. 58 Say thou: O people of the Book! what is it that ye persecute us for save that we believe in Allah and in that which hath been sent down unto us and that which hath been sent down aforetime? and most of you are transgressors. 59 Say (O Muhammad SAW to the people of the Scripture): "Shall I inform you of something worse than that, regarding the recompense from Allah: those (Jews) who incurred the Curse of Allah and His Wrath, those of whom (some) He transformed into monkeys and swines, those who worshipped Taghut (false deities); such are worse in rank (on the Day of Resurrection in the Hell-fire), and far more astray from the Right Path (in the life of this world)." 60 When they come to you, they say, 'We believe'; but they have entered in unbelief, and so they have departed in it; God knows very well what they were hiding. 61 You can see many of them competing with each other in sin, hostility, and in taking usury. What they had been doing is certainly evil. 62 Wherefore is it that the divines and priests forbid them not of their speaking of sin and their devouring of the forbidden? Vile indeed is that which they have been performing! 63 The Jews say: 'The Hand of Allah is chained' Their own hands are chained! And they are cursed for what they said! Rather, His Hands are both outstretched, He spends as He will. That which Allah has sent down to you will surely increase the tyranny and disbelief of many of them. We have stirred among them enmity and hatred up until the Day of Resurrection. Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. They spread corruption in the land, and Allah does not love those who corrupt. 64 But had the People of the Book believed and been godfearing, We would have acquitted them of their evil deeds, and admitted them to Gardens of Bliss. 65 Had the People of the Book observed the Torah and the Gospel, and all that had been revealed to them from their Lord, sustenance would have been showered over them from above and risen from beneath their feet. Some among them certainly keep to the right path; but many of them do things which are evil. 66