۞ Believers, take neither Jews nor Nazarenes for your guides. They are guides of one another. Whosoever of you takes them for a guide shall become one of their number. Allah does not guide the wrongdoers. 51 Indeed you see those afflicted with the disease of hypocrisy race towards them, saying: 'We fear lest some misfortune overtakes us. And it may happen that Allah will either bring you a decisive victory or bring about something else from Himself? and then they will feel remorseful at their hypocrisy which they have kept concealed in their breasts - 52 while those who believe will exclaim: 'Are these the self-same people who solemnly swore by Allah that they were with you?' All their acts have gone to waste and now they are the losers. 53 O believers, any one of you who turns back on his faith (should remember) that God could verily bring (in your place) another people whom He would love as they would love Him, gentle with believers, unbending with infidels, who would strive in the way of God, unafraid of blame by any slanderer. Such is the favour of God which He bestows on whomsoever He will. God is infinite and all-knowing. 54 Your friend is only God, and His Messenger, and the believers who perform the prayer and pay the alms, and bow them down. 55 Whoso makes God his friend, and His Messenger, and the believers -- the party of God, they are the victors. 56