۞ O you who believe, do not follow in the footsteps of Satan, for he who follows in the footsteps of Satan will be induced by him to what is shameful and forbidden. But for the grace of God and His mercy upon you none of you would have escaped undefiled; but God makes whosoever He will grow in goodness, for God is all-hearing and 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 Those who charge with slander those Believing women, who are chaste but simple souls, are accursed in this world and in the Hereafter: there is a great punishment for them. 23 On the day when their tongues and their hands and their feet shall bear witness against them as to what they did. 24 God will pay them on that day their just due in full, and they will come to know that God is the tangible Reality. 25 Corrupt women are for corrupt men, and corrupt men are for corrupt women; good women are for good men and good men are for good women. The latter are absolved from anything they may say; forgiveness and an honourable provision await them. 26