۞ It is not piety, that you turn your faces to the East and to the West. True piety is this: to believe in God, and the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the Prophets, to give of one's substance, however cherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy, the traveller, beggars, and to ransom the slave, to perform the prayer, to pay the alms. And they who fulfil their covenant when they have engaged in a covenant, and endure with fortitude misfortune, hardship and peril, these are they who are true in their faith, these are the truly godfearing. 177 O Ye who believe! prescribed unto you is retaliation for the slain; the free for the free, and a bondsman for a bondsman, and a woman for a woman. Yet unto whomsoever is pardoned aught by his brother, then a serving with lenity and payments with kindness. That is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy; so whosoever shall transgress thereafter, for him there shall be a torment afflictive. 178 People of understanding, the law of the death penalty as retaliation grants you life so that perhaps you will have fear of God. 179 It is prescribed for you, when death approaches any of you, if he leaves wealth, that he make a bequest to parents and next of kin, according to reasonable manners. (This is) a duty upon Al-Muttaqun (the pious - see V. 2:2). 180 And if anyone alters such a provision - after having come to know it, the sin of acting thus shall fall only upon those who have altered it. Verily, God is all-hearing, all-knowing. 181 But he who fears an inclination to a wrong course or an act of disobedience on the part of the testator, and effects an agreement between the parties, there is no blame on him. Surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. 182