O People who Believe! Do not be like the disbelievers who said regarding their brothers who went on a journey or on holy war, “If they had been here with us they would not have died or been killed” – so that Allah may make it as despair in their hearts; and Allah gives life and causes death; and Allah is seeing your deeds. 156 If you were to die or to be killed for the cause of God, certainly His forgiveness and mercy is far better than your worldly gains. 157 And were you to die or be slain, it is to Allah that you will all be mustered. 158 So what a great mercy it is from Allah that you (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him), are lenient towards them; and if you had been stern and hardhearted (unsympathetic) they would have certainly been uneasy in your company; so forgive them and intercede for them and consult with them in the conduct of affairs; and when you decide upon something, rely upon Allah; indeed Allah loves those who trust (Him). 159 If Allah helps you, none can overcome you. If He forsakes you, who then can help you after Him? Therefore, in Allah let the believers put all their trust. 160 It is not for a Prophet to defraud; and whoever defrauds shall bring with him the fruits of his fraud on the Day of Resurrection, when every human being shall be paid in full what he has earned, and shall not be wronged. 161 Is one who followeth the pleasure of Allah as one who hath earned condemnation from Allah, whose habitation is the Fire, a hapless journey's end? 162 People are of various grades in the sight of God. God is Well-Aware of all that they do. 163 Surely Allah conferred a great favour on the believers when He raised from among them a Messenger to recite to them His signs, and to purify them, and to teach them the Book and Wisdom. For before that they were in manifest error. 164 AND DO YOU, now that a calamity has befallen you after you had inflicted twice as much [on your foes,] ask yourselves, "How has this come about?" Say: "It has come from your own selves." Verily, God has the power to will anything: 165 And what befell you on the day when the two armies met (at Ohud) was with Allah's knowledge, and that He might know the believers. 166 And in order to expose them who turned hypocrites; and it was said to them, “Come, fight in Allah's cause, or repel the enemy”; they answered, “If we knew how to fight, we would certainly have been with you”; and on that day they were nearer to open disbelief than to professed faith; they utter with their mouths what is not in their hearts; and Allah knows well what they hide. – 167 To those who sit at home and say of their brothers: "They would never have been killed had they listened to us, say: "Drive away death from your midst if what you say is true." 168 Count not those who were slain in God's way as dead, but rather living with their Lord, by Him provided, 169 Rejoicing at what God has given them of His grace, and happy for those who are trying to overtake them but have not joined them yet, and who will have no fear or regret. 170 ۞ They rejoice at the favour of Allah and His grace, and that verily Allah wasteth not the hire of the believers. 171