۞ Piety does not lie in turning your face to East or West: Piety lies in believing in God, the Last Day and the angels, the Scriptures and the prophets, and disbursing your wealth out of love for God among your kin and the orphans, the wayfarers and mendicants, freeing the slaves, observing your devotional obligations, and in paying the zakat and fulfilling a pledge you have given, and being patient in hardship, adversity, and times of peril. These are the men who affirm the truth, and they are those who follow the straight path. 177 Believers, in case of murder, the death penalty is the sanctioned retaliation: a free man for a free man, a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. However, if the convicted person receives pardon from the aggrieved party, the prescribed rules of compensation must be followed accordingly. This is a merciful alteration from your Lord. Whoever transgresses against it will face a painful punishment. 178 In retaliation there is life for you, men possessed of minds; haply you will be godfearing. 179 Prescribed for you, when any of you is visited by death, and he leaves behind some goods, is to make testament in favour of his parents and kinsmen honourably -- an obligation on the godfearing. 180 And if anyone alters such a provision - after having come to know it, the sin of acting thus shall fall only upon those who have altered it. Verily, God is all-hearing, all-knowing. 181 Then if one fears that the will maker (the deceased) has done injustice or sin, and he makes a reconciliation between the parties, there shall be no sin upon him; indeed Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful. 182