۞ Surely Allah took a covenant with the Children of Israel, and We raised up from them twelve of their leaders, and Allah said: 'Behold, I am with you; if you establish Prayer and pay Zakah and believe in My Prophets and help them, and lend Allah a good loan, I will certainly efface from you your evil deeds, and will surely cause you to enter the Gardens beneath which rivers flow. Whosoever of you disbelieves thereafter has indeed gone astray from the right way. 12 But on account of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard; they altered the words from their places and they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of; and you shall always discover treachery in them excepting a few of them; so pardon them and turn away; surely Allah loves those who do good (to others). 13 And [likewise,] from those who say: "Behold, we are Christians." We have accepted a solemn pledge: and they, too, have forgotten much of what they had been told to bear in mind - wherefore We have given rise among them to enmity and hatred, [to last] until Resurrection Day: and in time God will cause them to understand what they have contrived. 14 People of the Book, Our Messenger has come to you. He tells you about the many things that you had been hiding of the Book and forgives you much. A light and a clarifying Book has come to you from God 15 whereby God guides to the ways of peace all who seek His good pleasure, bringing them from darkness to the light, by His will, and guiding them to a straight path. 16 They are unbelievers who say, 'God is the Messiah, Mary's son.' Say: 'Who then shall overrule God in any way if He desires to destroy the Messiah, Mary's son, and his mother, and all those who are on earth?' For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them, creating what He will. God is powerful over everything. 17 The Jews and the Nazarenes say: 'We are the children of Allah and His loved ones' Say: 'Why then does He punish you for your sins? Surely, you are mortals amongst what He created. He forgives whom He will, and punishes whom He will. For Allah is the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them. All shall return to Him' 18 O you people of the Book, Our Apostle has come to you when apostles had ceased to come long ago, lest you said: "There did not come to us any messenger of good news or of warnings." So now there has reached you a bearer of good tidings and of warnings; for God has the power over all things. 19