۞ O You who have attained to faith! Follow not Satan's footsteps: for he who follows Satan's footsteps [will find that,] behold, he enjoins but deeds of abomination and all that runs counter to reason. And were it not for God's favour upon you and His grace, not one of you would ever have remained pure. For [thus it is:] God who causes whomever He wills to grow in purity: for God is all-hearing, all-knowing. 21 Let not those who are possessed of means and plenty among you resolve to withhold their bounty from their kindred and the needy and those who have migrated from their homes in the cause of God. Let them forgive and overlook. Do you not wish God to forgive you? God is forgiving and merciful. 22 [But,] verily, those who [falsely, and without repentance,] accuse chaste women who may have been unthinkingly careless but have remained true to their faith, shall be rejected [from God's grace] in this world as well as in the life to come: and awesome suffering awaits them 23 on the day when their tongues, hands, and feet will testify to what they had done. 24 On that day Allah will pay them their just due, and they will know that Allah, He is the Manifest Truth. 25 Bad women deserve bad men, and bad men are for bad women; but good women are for good men, and good men for good women, for they are innocent of what people say. There is forgiveness for them and a gracious provision. 26