۞ 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 Warn the hypocrites that for them there is a painful punishment. 138 Do those who establish friendship with the disbelievers instead of the believers seek honor? Let them know that all honor belongs to God. 139 He has instructed you in the Book that, when you hear people deny or ridicule God's revelations, you must not sit with them unless they engage in other talk, or else you yourselves shall become like them. God will gather all the hypocrites and those who deny the truth together in Hell. 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