۞ O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God's claim takes precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort [the truth,] behold, God is indeed aware of all that you do! 135 O believers, believe in God and His Messenger and the Book He has sent down on His Messenger and the Book which He sent down before. Whoso disbelieves in God and His angels and His Books, and His Messengers, and the Last Day, has surely gone astray into far error. 136 Lo! those who believe, then disbelieve and then (again) believe, then disbelieve, and then increase in disbelief, Allah will never pardon them, nor will He guide them unto a way. 137 Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment - 138 Those who take infidels for friends, instead of the believers; seek they honour with them? verily then honour is Allah's altogether. 139 And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allah [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation. Indeed, you would then be like them. Indeed Allah will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers in Hell all together - 140 (As for) those who lay in wait for you. If a victory comes to you from Allah they say: 'Were we not with you' But if the unbelievers get a portion, they say, 'Were we not mightier than you, and did we not defend you from the believers' Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection. Allah will not grant the unbelievers any way over the believers. 141