۞ 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 Believers, believe in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), in the Book He has sent down to His Messenger, and in the Book He sent down before. Whosoever disbelieves in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Last Day, has surely gone astray into far error. 136 God will not forgive or guide to the right path those who first believe, then disbelieve, again believe and disbelieve, and then increase their disbelief. 137 Give tidings of painful chastisement to the hypocrites. 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 sent down upon you in the Book: 'When you hear God's signs being disbelieved and made mock of, do not sit with them until they plunge into some other talk, or else you will surely be like to them.' God will gather the hypocrites and the unbelievers all in Gehenna. 140 The hypocrites wait to see what happens to you and, if God grants you a victory, they say, "Were we not on your side?" And if those who deny the truth have a share of it [victory] they say to them, "Did we not help you win, and protect you from the believers?" God will judge between you [all] on Resurrection Day. And never will God allow those who deny the truth to harm the believers. 141