Believers! Do not seek the friendship of those who were given the Book before you or the disbelievers who ridicule your religion and make a jest of it. Have fear of God, if you are true believers. 57 And when you proclaim the call for As-Salat [call for the prayer (Adhan)], they take it (but) as a mockery and fun; that is because they are a people who understand not. 58 Say to them: "O people of the Book, what reason have you for disliking us other than that we believe in God and what has been sent down to us, and was sent down before, and because most of you are disobedient?" 59 Say: "Shall I inform you who will receive the worst chastisement from God? They who were condemned by God, and on whom fell His wrath, and those who were turned to apes and swine, and those who worship the powers of evil. They are in the worse gradation, and farthest away from the right path." 60 When they come unto you (Muslims), they say: We believe; but they came in unbelief and they went out in the same; and Allah knoweth best what they were hiding. 61 You will see many of them hastening towards sin and transgression and devouring unlawful earnings. Indeed what they do is evil. 62 Why do not their priests and monks forbid them from speaking evil and devouring the forbidden? Undoubtedly what they do is extremely evil. 63 The Jews say: 'The Hand of Allah is chained' Their own hands are chained! And they are cursed for what they said! Rather, His Hands are both outstretched, He spends as He will. That which Allah has sent down to you will surely increase the tyranny and disbelief of many of them. We have stirred among them enmity and hatred up until the Day of Resurrection. Whenever they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. They spread corruption in the land, and Allah does not love those who corrupt. 64 And if only the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) had believed (in Muhammad SAW) and warded off evil (sin, ascribing partners to Allah) and had become Al-Muttaqun (the pious - see V. 2:2) We would indeed have blotted out their sins and admitted them to Gardens of pleasure (in Paradise). 65 If only they had stood fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that was sent to them from their Lord, they would have enjoyed happiness from every side. There is from among them a party on the right course: but many of them follow a course that is evil. 66