۞ O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God's claim takes precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort [the truth,] behold, God is indeed aware of all that you do! 135 Believers, believe in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), in the Book He has sent down to His Messenger, and in the Book He sent down before. Whosoever disbelieves in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Last Day, has surely gone astray into far error. 136 Those who believe, and then disbelieve, and then believe, and then disbelieve, and increase in disbelief Allah is not to forgive them nor guide them on a way. 137 Give thou good tidings to the hypocrites that for them awaits a painful chastisement. 138 Those who take unbelievers for their friends instead of believers -- do they seek glory in them? But glory altogether belongs to God. 139 He has instructed you in the Book that, when you hear people deny or ridicule God's revelations, you must not sit with them unless they engage in other talk, or else you yourselves shall become like them. God will gather all the hypocrites and those who deny the truth together in Hell. 140 Those who wait upon occasion in regard to you and, if a victory cometh unto you from Allah, say: Are we not with you? and if the disbelievers meet with a success say: Had we not the mastery of you, and did we not protect you from the believers? - Allah will judge between you at the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will not give the disbelievers any way (of success) against the believers. 141