۞ Allah made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel and We raised among them twelve chieftains, and Allah said: Lo! I am with you. If ye establish worship and pay the poor-due, and believe in My messengers and support them, and lend unto Allah a kindly loan, surely I shall remit your sins, and surely I shall bring you into Gardens underneath which rivers flow. Whoso among you disbelieveth after this will go astray from a plain road. 12 So because of their breach of their covenant, We cursed them, and made their hearts grow hard. They change the words from their (right) places and have abandoned a good part of the Message that was sent to them. And you will not cease to discover deceit in them, except a few of them. But forgive them, and overlook (their misdeeds). Verily, Allah loves Al-Muhsinun (good-doers - see V. 2:112). 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 O ye people of the Book! surely there hath come Our apostle unto you expounding unto you much in the Book that ye were wont to hide, and much he passeth over. Of a surety, there hath come unto you from Allah a light and a Book luminous. 15 With it, Allah guides whoever obeys the will of Allah to the paths of peace, and takes them out of darkness towards light by His command, and guides them to the Straight Path. 16 Indeed those who said: 'Christ, the son of Mary, he is indeed God', disbelieved. Say (O Muhammad!): 'Who could have overruled Allah had He so willed to destroy Christ, the son of Mary, and his mother, and all those who are on earth?' For to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them; He creates what He wills. Allah is All-Powerful. 17 (Both) the Jews and the Christians say: "We are sons of Allah, and his beloved." Say: "Why then doth He punish you for your sins? Nay, ye are but men,- of the men he hath created: He forgiveth whom He pleaseth, and He punisheth whom He pleaseth: and to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between: and unto Him is the final goal (of all)" 18 People of the Book! After an interval during which there were no Messengers, Our Messenger (Muhammad) has come to clarify (your religion) to you, lest you should say: 'No bearer of glad tidings or a warner has come to us' Indeed, there has come to you a bearer of glad tidings and a warner. Allah has power over all things. 19