O you who have believed, if you fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion and will remove from you your misdeeds and forgive you. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty. 29 AND [remember, O Prophet,] how those who were bent on denying the truth were scheming against thee, in order to restrain thee [from preaching,] or to slay thee, or to drive thee away; thus have they [always] schemed, but God brought their scheming to nought - for God is above all schemers. 30 And when Our verses are recited to them, they say, "We have heard. If we willed, we could say [something] like this. This is not but legends of the former peoples." 31 And (remember) when they said: "O Allah! If this (the Quran) is indeed the truth (revealed) from You, then rain down stones on us from the sky or bring on us a painful torment." 32 But God would not choose to punish them while you are in their midst, nor afflict them when they are seeking forgiveness. 33 And why should Allah not punish them, when they have barred others from the Sacred Mosque, although they were not its guardians? Its only guardians are the cautious, though most of them do not know. 34 And their prayer at the House is nothing but a whistling and a clapping of hands -- therefore taste you now the chastisement for your unbelief! 35 Surely those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (people) from the way of Allah; so they shall spend it, then it shall be to them an intense regret, then they shall be overcome; and those who disbelieve shall be driven together to hell. 36 so that God might separate the bad from the good, and join the bad with one another, and link them all together [within His condemnation,] and then place them in hell. They, they are the lost! 37