You are the best nation ever brought forth to men, bidding to honour, and forbidding dishonour, and believing in God. Had the People of the Book believed, it were better for them; some of them are believers, but the most of them are ungodly. 110 They will do you no harm, barring a trifling annoyance; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs, and no help shall they get. 111 Stuck upon them is abjection wheresoever they may be come upon, except in a compact with Allah and a compact with men; and they drew upon themselves indignation from Allah; and stuck upon them is poverty. That is because they have been disbelieving in the signs of Allah, and slaying the prophets without justice. That is because they disobeyed and have been trespassing. 112 ۞ They are not [all] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing [in obedience], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating [in prayer]. 113 believing in God and in the Last Day, bidding to honour and forbidding dishonour, vying one with the other in good works; those are of the righteous. 114 Whatever good they do shall not go unappreciated, and Allah fully knows those who are pious. 115 As for those who disbelieve, neither their riches nor their children shall help them a thing from Allah. They are the people of the Fire, and there they shall remain for ever. 116 The example of what they spend in the life of this world is like that of a wind accompanied with frost which smites the harvest of a people who wronged themselves, and lays it to waste. It is not Allah who wronged them; rather it is they who wrong themselves. 117 O you who believe! do not take for intimate friends from among others than your own people; they do not fall short of inflicting loss upon you; they love what distresses you; vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater still; indeed, We have made the communications clear to you, if you will understand. 118 It is you who love them, but they do not love you; you believe in all the revealed Books. When they meet you, they say, "We believe," but when they are alone, they bite their fingertips with rage. Say, "Die of rage!" God is aware of what your hearts contain. 119 When you are touched with good fortune, they grieve, but when evil befalls you, they rejoice. If you are patient and cautious, their guile will never harm you. Allah encompasses what they do. 120