O ye who believe! Be not like the Unbelievers, who say of their brethren, when they are travelling through the Earth or engaged in fighting: "If they had stayed with us, they would not have died, or been slain." This that Allah may make it a cause of sighs and regrets in their hearts. It is Allah that gives Life and Death, and Allah sees well all that ye do. 156 If you are killed in the cause of God or you die, the forgiveness and mercy of God are better than all that you amass. 157 for, indeed, if you die or are slain, it will surely be unto God that you shall be gathered. 158 So by mercy from Allah, [O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah. Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon Him]. 159 If God helps you, none can overcome you, but if He withdraws His help from you, who is there who can help you besides Him? In God, then, let the believers place their trust! 160 No prophet could (ever) be false to his trust. If any person is so false, He shall, on the Day of Judgment, restore what he misappropriated; then shall every soul receive its due,- whatever it earned,- and none shall be dealt with unjustly. 161 Is one who followeth the pleasure of Allah as one who hath earned condemnation from Allah, whose habitation is the Fire, a hapless journey's end? 162 All have a different standing in the eyes of God, and God is observant of all their actions. 163 Indeed Allah conferred a great favour on the believers when He sent among them a Messenger (Muhammad SAW) from among themselves, reciting unto them His Verses (the Quran), and purifying them (from sins by their following him), and instructing them (in) the Book (the Quran) and Al-Hikmah [the wisdom and the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW (i.e. his legal ways, statements, acts of worship, etc.)], while before that they had been in manifest error. 164 Is it that when a reverse hath befallen you, albeit ye had inflicted twice as much, ye say: whence is this? Say thou: it is but from yourselves. Verily Allah is over everything Potent. 165 And what visited you, the day the two hosts encountered, was by God's leave, and that He might know the believers; 166 and that He might know the hypocrites' When it was said to them: 'Come, fight or repel in the way of Allah' They replied: 'If only we knew how to fight, we would follow you' On that day, they were nearer to disbelief than belief. They said with their mouths what was not in their hearts. And Allah knows what they hide. 167 Those who spoke regarding their brothers while they themselves stayed back at home, “Had they listened to us, they would not have been slain”; say (to them, O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him), “Then avert your own death, if you are truthful!” 168 Do not think of those slain for the cause of God as dead. They are alive with their Lord and receive sustenance from Him. 169 rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them out of His bounty, jubilant that neither fear nor grief shall come upon the believers left behind in the world who have not yet joined them. 170 ۞ they rejoice in the glad tiding of God's blessings and bounty, and [in the promise] that God will not fail to requite the believers 171