۞ And assuredly Allah took a bond from the Children of Isra'il, and We raised from amongst them twelve wardens. And Allah said: verily I am with you, if ye establish prayer and give the poor-rate and believe in My apostles and support them and lend unto Allah a goodly loan, I shall surely expiate for you your misdeeds and surely shall make you enter the Gardens whereunder rivers flow; then whosoever of you shall disbelieve thereafter, he hath surely strayed from the level way. 12 And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished. Thou wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few of them. But bear with them and pardon them. Lo! Allah loveth the kindly. 13 We also took a covenant from those who said: 'We are Christians'; but they forgot a good portion of the teaching they had been imparted with. Wherefore We aroused enmity and spite between them till the Day of Resurrection, and ultimately Allah will tell them what they had contrived. 14 O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Now has come to you Our Messenger (Muhammad SAW) explaining to you much of that which you used to hide from the Scripture and passing over (i.e. leaving out without explaining) much. Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light (Prophet Muhammad SAW) and a plain Book (this Quran). 15 Through which God will lead those who follow His pleasure to the path of peace, and guide them out of darkness into light by His will, and to the path that is straight. 16 Assuredly they have disbelieved who say: verily God! He is the Masih, son of Maryam. Say thou; who can avail in aught against Allah, if He intended to destroy Masih, son of Maryam, and his mother and those on the earth altogether? And Allah's is the dominion of the heavens and the earth and that which is in between the twain. He createth whatsoever He will, and Allah is over everything Potent. 17 The Jews and the Christians say: 'We are Allah's children and His beloved ones.' Ask them: 'Why, then, does He chastise you for your sins?' You are the same as other men He has created. He forgives whom He wills and chastises whom He wills. And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them. To Him is the eventual return. 18 O People of the Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you to make things plain unto you after an interval (of cessation) of the messengers, lest ye should say: There came not unto us a messenger of cheer nor any warner. Now hath a messenger of cheer and a warner come unto you. Allah is Able to do all things. 19