۞ Undoubtedly Allah made a covenant with the Descendants of Israel, and We appointed twelve chiefs among them; and Allah said, “Indeed I am with you; surely, if you establish the prayer and pay the charity, and believe in My Noble Messengers and respect* them, and lend an excellent loan to Allah, I will surely forgive your sins, and I will surely admit you into Gardens beneath which rivers flow; then after this, if any of you disbelieves, he has certainly gone astray from the Straight Path." (To honour the Holy Prophet – peace and blessings be upon him – is part of faith. To disrespect him is blasphemy.) 12 Then, for their breach of the covenant We cast them away from Our mercy and caused their hearts to harden. (And now they are in such a state that) they pervert the words from their context and thus distort their meaning, and have forgotten a good portion of the teaching they were imparted, and regarding all except a few of them you continue to learn that they committed acts of treachery. Pardon them, then, and overlook their deeds. Surely Allah loves those who do good deeds. 13 And with those who say: "Lo! we are Christians," We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefor We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork. 14 People of the Book, Our Messenger has come to you. He tells you about the many things that you had been hiding of the Book and forgives you much. A light and a clarifying Book has come to you from God 15 Wherewith Allah guideth all who seek His good pleasure to ways of peace and safety, and leadeth them out of darkness, by His will, unto the light,- guideth them to a path that is straight. 16 They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary. Say, "Then who could prevent Allah at all if He had intended to destroy Christ, the son of Mary, or his mother or everyone on the earth?" And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them. He creates what He wills, and Allah is over all things competent. 17 The Jews and the Christians say: 'We are Allah's children and His beloved ones.' Ask them: 'Why, then, does He chastise you for your sins?' You are the same as other men He has created. He forgives whom He wills and chastises whom He wills. And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them. To Him is the eventual return. 18 O People of the Book! Now hath come unto you, making (things) clear unto you, Our Messenger, after the break in (the series of) our messengers, lest ye should say: "There came unto us no bringer of glad tidings and no warner (from evil)": But now hath come unto you a bringer of glad tidings and a warner (from evil). And Allah hath power over all things. 19