YOU ARE indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for [the good of] mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God. Now if the followers of earlier revelation had attained to [this kind of] faith, it would have been for their own good; [but only few] among them are believers, while most of them are iniquitous: 110 They cannot harm you except cause some trouble; and if they fight against you, they will turn their backs on you; then they will not be helped. 111 abasement shall attend them wherever they are found, unless they make a covenant with God or with man. They have incurred God's wrath and have been utterly humbled, because they have persistently disbelieved in God's signs and killed prophets unjustly. This resulted from their disobedience and their habit of transgression. 112 ۞ Yet they are not all alike. There are among the People of the Book an upstanding nation that recite the verses of Allah (the Koran) throughout the night and prostrate themselves, 113 They believe in Allah and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. 114 And whatever good they do - never will it be removed from them. And Allah is Knowing of the righteous. 115 (As for) those who disbelieve, surely neither their wealth nor their children shall avail them in the least against Allah; and these are the inmates of the fire; therein they shall abide. 116 The example of what they spend in this worldly life is similar to the freezing cold wind which struck the fields of a nation who wronged themselves, and destroyed it completely; and Allah did not oppress them, but it is they who wronged themselves. 117 O ye who believe! Take not for intimates others than your own folk, who would spare no pains to ruin you; they love to hamper you. Hatred is revealed by (the utterance of) their mouths, but that which their breasts hide is greater. We have made plain for you the revelations if ye will understand. 118 Listen! It is you who love them and they do not love you, whereas the fact is that you believe in all the Books; when they meet you they say, “We believe”; and when they are alone they chew their fingers at you with rage; say, “Die in your frenzy!” Allah knows well what lies within the hearts. 119 If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and fear Allah, their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do. 120