ركوع 149

Believers, if you remain mindful of God, He will give you a criterion [to tell right from wrong] and wipe out your bad deeds, and forgive you: God’s favour is great indeed.

Remember [Prophet] when the disbelievers plotted to take you captive, kill, or expel you. They schemed and so did God: He is the best of schemers.

Whenever Our Revelation is recited to them they say, ‘We have heard all this before- we could say something like this if we wanted- this is nothing but ancient fables.’

They also said, ‘God, if this really is the truth from You, then rain stones on us from the heavens, or send us some other painful punishment.’

But God would not send them punishment while you [Prophet] are in their midst, nor would He punish them if they sought forgiveness,

yet why should God not punish them when they debar people from the Sacred Mosque, although they are not its [rightful] guardians? Only those mindful of God are its rightful guardians, but most of the disbelievers do not realize this.

Their prayers before the House are nothing but whistling and clapping. ‘So taste the punishment for your disbelief.’

They use their wealth to bar people from the path of God, and they will go on doing so. In the end this will be a source of intense regret for them: they will be overcome and herded towards Hell.

God will separate the bad from the good, place the bad on top of one another- heaping them all up together- and put them in Hell. They will be the losers.