O believers, be not as the unbelievers who say to their brothers, when they journey in the land, or are upon expeditions, 'If they had been with us, they would not have died and not been slain' -- that God may make that an anguish in their hearts. For God gives life, and He makes to die; and God sees the things you do. 156 If you are slain or die in God's way, forgiveness and mercy from God are a better thing than that you amass; 157 for, indeed, if you die or are slain, it will surely be unto God that you shall be gathered. 158 Thus it is due to mercy from Allah that you deal with them gently, and had you been rough, hard hearted, they would certainly have dispersed from around you; pardon them therefore and ask pardon for them, and take counsel with them in the affair; so when you have decided, then place your trust in Allah; surely Allah loves those who trust. 159 If God succours you, none can ever overcome you; but if He should forsake you, who could succour you thereafter? In God, then, let the believers place their trust! 160 It is not the part of a prophet to hide anything away: whosoever hideth anything away, he shall bring forth on the Day of Resurrection that which he had hidden away; then shall each one be repaid in full that which he hath earned, and they shall not be wronged. 161 Is he who follows the good pleasure of Allah like him who is laden with Allah's wrath and whose abode is Hell? How evil that is for a resting-place! 162 They are on [entirely] different levels in the sight of God; for God sees all that they do. 163 Certainly Allah conferred a benefit upon the believers when He raised among them an Apostle from among themselves, reciting to them His communications and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error. 164 If misfortune befell you (the believers) your enemies had suffered twice as much (in the battle of Badr) but you asked, "Where did the misfortune come from?" (Muhammad), tell them, "It came from yourselves. God has power over all things. 165 and all that befell you on the day when the two hosts met in battle happened by God's leave, so that He might mark out the [true] believers, 166 And in order to expose them who turned hypocrites; and it was said to them, “Come, fight in Allah's cause, or repel the enemy”; they answered, “If we knew how to fight, we would certainly have been with you”; and on that day they were nearer to open disbelief than to professed faith; they utter with their mouths what is not in their hearts; and Allah knows well what they hide. – 167 They say of their brethren, while they themselves are staid: had they obeyed us they had not been slain. Say thou: then repel death from yourselves if ye say sooth. 168 Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provision. 169 rejoicing in the bounty that God has given them, and joyful in those who remain behind and have not joined them, because no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow, 170 ۞ They glory in the Grace and the bounty from Allah, and in the fact that Allah suffereth not the reward of the Faithful to be lost (in the least). 171