The Test (Al-Mumtahanah)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Believers, do not choose My enemies and your own enemies for friends, and offer them strong love. They have rejected the Truth which has come to you, and have expelled the Messenger and you from your homes because of your belief in your Lord. When you go to fight for My cause and seek My pleasure, you secretly express your love of them. I know best what you reveal or conceal. Whichever of you does this has indeed gone astray from the right path. 1 Should they gain the upper hand over you, they would behave to you as enemies, and stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you with evil, and they desire that you should disbelieve. 2 Never will your relatives or your children benefit you; the Day of Resurrection He will judge between you. And Allah, of what you do, is Seeing. 3 Indeed, there is for you a good example in Ibrahim and those with him when they said to their people: Surely we are clear of you and of what you serve besides Allah; we declare ourselves to be clear of you, and enmity and hatred have appeared between us and you forever until you believe in Allah alone-- but not in what Ibrahim said to his father: I would certainly ask forgiveness for you, and I do not control for you aught from Allah-- Our Lord! on Thee do we rely, and to Thee do we turn, and to Thee is the eventual coming: 4 Our Lord, make us not a temptation to those who disbelieve; and forgive us. Our Lord, Thou art the All-mighty, the All-wise.' 5 Verily ye have in them a goodly pattern for everyone who looketh to Allah and the Last Day. And whosoever may turn away, lo! still Allah, He is the Absolute, the Owner of Praise. 6