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 [can there be a treaty] for, if they get the upper hand over you, they will respect neither kinship nor covenant. They [try to] please you with their tongues but their hearts reject you; most of them are perfidious. 8 They sell the verses of Allah for a small price and bar others from His Path. Evil is what they have been doing. 9 In respect of the Muslims, they do not keep regard for any relations nor any pacts; it is they who are the rebels. 10 But if they repent and are firm in devotion and pay the zakat, then they are your brothers in faith. We explain Our commands distinctly for those who understand. 11 If they break their pledge after giving their word and revile your faith, fight these specimens of faithlessness, for surely their oaths have no sanctity: They may haply desist. 12 Why will you not fight against a people who have broken their peace treaty with you, have decided to expel the Messenger (from his home town), and who were the first to disregard the peace treaty? If you are true believers, you should only have fear of God. 13 Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers, 14 and He will remove the rage within their hearts; and God turns towards whomsoever He will; God is All-knowing, All-wise 15 Or think ye that ye shall be abandoned, as though Allah did not know those among you who strive with might and main, and take none for friends and protectors except Allah, His Messenger, and the (community of) Believers? But Allah is well-acquainted with (all) that ye do. 16