The hypocrites try to deceive God, but He (leads them to) deceive themselves. When they stand up for performing the service of prayer they do so indolently, only for show, and remember God but little, 142 They vacillate between the two, belonging neither to one side nor the other. But for him whom God allows to go astray you can never find the way for him. 143 O believers, take not the unbelievers as friends instead of the believers; or do you desire to give God over you a clear authority? 144 Lo! the hypocrites (will be) in the lowest deep of the Fire, and thou wilt find no helper for them; 145 But those who repent and mend (their ways), who hold fast to Allah, and make their religion sincerely for Allah they are with the believers, and Allah will certainly give the believers a great wage. 146 Why would God cause you to suffer [for your past sins] if you are grateful and attain to belief - seeing that God is always responsive to gratitude, all-knowing? 147 ۞ God does not love the utterance of evil words except in the case of someone who has been wronged. God hears all and knows all. 148 Whether you act virtuously, in public or in private, or pardon (people's) faults, God is All-forgiving and All-powerful. 149 Those who believe not in God and His apostles, and desire to differentiate between God and His messengers, and say: "We believe in some and not in the others," and wish to find a way (between affirmation and denial), 150 but, in fact, they are unbelievers, and for them We have prepared a humiliating torment. 151 But those who believe in Allah and His messengers and make no distinction between any of them, unto them Allah will give their wages; and Allah was ever Forgiving, Merciful. 152