O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination. 73 They swear by Allah that they said nothing. Yet they did utter the word of disbelief and disbelieved after they had submitted. They intended what they never attained to, and took revenge only that Allah enriched them, and His Messenger, of His Bounty. If they repent, it will indeed be better for them; but if they turn away, Allah will sternly punish them both in this world and in the Everlasting Life. They have none on earth to protect or help them. 74 ۞ Some of them made a covenant with God: "If You give us in Your bounty we shall give alms and be upright." 75 Nevertheless, when He gave them of His bounty they were niggardly of it, and turned away, swerving aside. 76 So He chastised them with setting hypocrisy in their hearts until the Day they shall meet Him, because they kept back from Allah that which they had promised Him, and because they were wont to lie. 77 Did they not know that Allah knows their secret and what they conspire together, and that Allah knows all the unseen? 78 They who taunt those of the faithful who give their alms freely, and those who give to the extent of their earnings and scoff at them; Allah will pay them back their scoffing, and they shall have a painful chastisement. 79 Ask forgiveness for them, [O Muhammad], or do not ask forgiveness for them. If you should ask forgiveness for them seventy times - never will Allah forgive them. That is because they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger, and Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people. 80