۞ And recite thou to them the story of the two sons of Adam truthfully, when they offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted of one of them, and not accepted of the other. 'I will surely slay thee,' said one. 'God accepts only of the godfearing,' said the other. 27 If you stretch your hand to kill me, I shall not stretch mine to kill you; for I fear Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. 28 and I want you to bear your sins against me as well as your own sins and become an inhabitant of the Fire. Such is the reward of the wrongdoers." 29 At last his evil soul drove him to the murder of his brother, and he killed him, whereby he himself became one of the losers. 30 Then God sent a raven which scratched the ground in order to show him how to hide the nakedness of his brother. "Alas, the woe," said he, "that I could not be even like the raven and hide the nakedness of my brother," and was filled with remorse. 31 For this reason, We made it a law for the children of Israel that the killing of a person for reasons other than legal retaliation or for stopping corruption in the land is as great a sin as murdering all of mankind. However, to save a life would be as great a virtue as to save all of mankind. Our Messengers had come to them with clear authoritative evidence but many of them (Israelites) thereafter started doing wrong in the land. 32 The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His Noble Messenger and cause turmoil in the land is that they be all be killed or crucified, or their hands and feet cut off from alternate sides, or they be banished far away from the land; this is their degradation in the world, and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment. 33 except for those who repent before you gain power over them: for you must know that God is forgiving and merciful. 34