O believers, if you obey the unbelievers they will turn you upon your heels, and you will turn about, losers. 149 No, indeed! it is God who is your protector: He is the best supporter. 150 Into the hearts of those who are bent on denying the truth We shall cast dread in return for their ascribing divinity, side by side with God, to other beings - [something] for which He has never bestowed any warrant from on high; and their goal is the fire - and how evil that abode of evildoers! 151 AND, INDEED, God made good His promise unto you when, by His leave, you were about to destroy your foes - until the moment when you lost heart and acted contrary to the [Prophet's] command, and disobeyed after He had brought you within view of that [victory] for which you were longing. There were among you such as cared for this world [alone,] just as there were among you such as cared for the life to come: whereupon, in order that He might put you to a test, He prevented you from defeating your foes. But now He has effaced your sin: for God is limitless in His bounty unto the believers. 152 ۞ When you were running away and did not look back at anyone, while the Messenger was calling to you from behind, He paid you back with one sorrow after another, so that you might not grieve for what you lost, nor for what befell you. God is aware of what you do. 153 Then, after sorrow, He sent down unto you a security - slumber coming over a section of you; while another section, concerned about themselves, bethought of Allah unjustly: the thought of paganism. They said: have we aught at all of the affair? Say thou: the affair is wholly Allah's. They hide within themselves that which they disclose not unto thee, saying: had we aught of the affair, we would not have been slain here. Say thou: had ye stayed in your houses, even then those decreed to be slain would surely have gone forth to their places of slaughter; and this happened in order that he might prove that which was in your breasts, and purge that which was in your hearts; and Allah is Knower of that which is in the breasts. 154 Indeed those of you who turned back on the day when the two armies met – for it was the devil who caused them to waver, because of some of their deeds; and undoubtedly Allah has forgiven them; indeed Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Forbearing. 155