those who came with the slander were a number of you. Do not regard it evil for you, rather it is good for you. Every person of them shall have the sin that he has earned charged to him. As for he who took upon himself the greater part there is a mightier punishment. 11 When you heard of it, why did not the believing men and believing women think well of their own people, and say, "This is a manifest slander?" 12 Would that they had brought four witnesses to testify to their report. Since they brought none, they are liars before God. 13 Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you in the world and the Hereafter an awful doom had overtaken you for that whereof ye murmured. 14 When you were spreading it with your tongues and saying with your mouths things of which you had no knowledge, you considered it to be a trivial matter, but, in God's sight, it was very serious. 15 Would that on hearing this report, you had said, "We have nothing to say about it. God forbid! It is a serious accusation." 16 Allah admonishes you that in future you should never repeat a thing like this, if you are true Believers. 17 And Allah makes the Signs plain to you: for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom. 18 There is painful punishment in this world and the next for those who like that immorality should spread among the believers, for God knows and you do not know. 19 Were it not for the favor and mercy of God upon you (you would have faced painful punishment in this world and the life to come). God is Compassionate and Merciful. 20