۞ It is not Al-Birr (piety, righteousness, and each and every act of obedience to Allah, etc.) that you turn your faces towards east and (or) west (in prayers); but Al-Birr is (the quality of) the one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the Angels, the Book, the Prophets and gives his wealth, in spite of love for it, to the kinsfolk, to the orphans, and to Al-Masakin (the poor), and to the wayfarer, and to those who ask, and to set slaves free, performs As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat), and gives the Zakat, and who fulfill their covenant when they make it, and who are As-Sabirin (the patient ones, etc.) in extreme poverty and ailment (disease) and at the time of fighting (during the battles). Such are the people of the truth and they are Al-Muttaqun (pious - see V. 2:2). 177 O Ye who believe! prescribed unto you is retaliation for the slain; the free for the free, and a bondsman for a bondsman, and a woman for a woman. Yet unto whomsoever is pardoned aught by his brother, then a serving with lenity and payments with kindness. That is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy; so whosoever shall transgress thereafter, for him there shall be a torment afflictive. 178 People of understanding, the law of the death penalty as retaliation grants you life so that perhaps you will have fear of God. 179 Prescribed for you when death approaches [any] one of you if he leaves wealth [is that he should make] a bequest for the parents and near relatives according to what is acceptable - a duty upon the righteous. 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 But he who feareth from a testator some unjust or sinful clause, and maketh peace between the parties, (it shall be) no sin for him. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. 182