HOW COULD they who ascribe divinity to aught beside God be granted a covenant by God and His Apostle, unless it be those [of them] with whom you [O believers] have made a covenant in the vicinity of the Inviolable House of Worship? [As for the latter,] so long as they remain true to you, be true to them: for, verily, God loves those who are conscious of Him. 7 How? If they get the better of you, they will not observe towards you any bond or treaty, giving you satisfaction with their mouths but in their hearts refusing; and the most of them are ungodly. 8 They exchanged the verses of Allah for an abject price, therefore prevented from His way; indeed what they do is extremely evil. 9 observing neither bond nor treaty towards a believer; they are the transgressors. 10 Yet if they repent, and take to prayer, and render the purifying dues, they become your brethren in faith: and clearly do We spell out these messages unto people of [innate] knowledge! 11 And if they break their promises after making a treaty and malign your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief – indeed their promises are nothing – in the hope that they may desist. 12 Will ye not fight a people who have violated their oaths and resolved the expulsion of the apostle and who began against you for the first time? Fear ye them? Allah is more worthy that ye should fear Him, if ye are believers. 13 So fight them – Allah will punish them at your hands, and He will disgrace them and assist you over them, and He will soothe the hearts of the believers. 14 And remove the anger from their breasts; for God turns to whosoever desires. God is all-knowing and all-wise. 15 Do you [O believers] think that you will be spared without God identifying which of you have struggled and did not take anyone for friends and protectors except God, His Messenger, and the believers? God is fully aware of all your actions. 16