The People of the Book

God covenanted the people of Israel and raised twelve leaders among them, and said: "I shall verily be with you. If you fulfil your devotional obligations, pay the zakat and believe in My apostles and support them, and give a goodly loan to God, I shall certainly absolve you of your evil, and admit you to gardens with streams of running water. But whosoever among you denies after this, will have wandered away from the right path."

When they dishonoured their pledge We condemned them, and hardened their hearts. So they distort the words of the Scripture out of context, and have forgotten some of what they were warned against. You will always hear of treachery on their part except that of a few. But forbear and forgive them, for God loves those who do good.

We had taken the pledge of those also who call themselves Christians. But they too forgot to take advantage of the warning they were given. So We have caused enmity and hatred among them to last till the Day of Resurrection, when God will inform them of what they were doing.

O people of the Book, Our Apostle has come to you, announcing many things of the Scriptures that you have suppressed, passing over some others. To you has come light and a clear Book from God

Through which God will lead those who follow His pleasure to the path of peace, and guide them out of darkness into light by His will, and to the path that is straight.

Verily they are unbelievers who say: "The Messiah, son of Mary, is God." You ask them: "Who could prevail against God if He had chosen to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother, and the rest of mankind?" For God's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and whatsoever lies between them. He creates what He please, for God has the power over all things.

Say the Jews and the Christians: "We are sons of God and beloved of Him." Say: "Why does He punish you then for your sins? No: You are only mortals, of His creation." He can punish whom He please and pardon whom He will, for God's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them, and everything will go back to Him.

O you people of the Book, Our Apostle has come to you when apostles had ceased to come long ago, lest you said: "There did not come to us any messenger of good news or of warnings." So now there has reached you a bearer of good tidings and of warnings; for God has the power over all things.

Remember when Moses said to his people: "O my people, remember the favours that God bestowed on you when He appointed apostles from among you, and made you kings and gave you what had never been given to any one in the world.

Enter then, my people, the Holy Land that God has ordained for you, and do not turn back, or you will suffer."

They said: "O Moses, in that land live a people who are formidable; we shall never go there until they leave. We shall enter when they go away."

Then two of the men who feared (God), and to whom God was gracious, said to them: "Charge and rush the gate. If you enter, you will surely be victorious. And place your trust in God if you truly believe."

They said: "O Moses, we shall never, never enter so long as they are there. Go you and your Lord to fight them; we stay here."

Said (Moses): "O Lord, I have control over none but myself and my brother; so distinguish between us and these, the wicked people."

(And God) said: "Then verily this land is forbidden them for forty years, and they shall wander perplexed over the earth. So do not grieve for these, the wicked people."

Narrate to them exactly the tale of the two sons of Adam. When each of them offered a sacrifice (to God), that of one was accepted, and that of the other was not. Said (the one): "I will murder you," and the other replied: "God only accepts from those who are upright and preserve themselves from evil.

If you raise your hand to kill me, I will raise not mine to kill you, for I fear God, the Lord of all the worlds;

I would rather you suffered the punishment for sinning against me, and for your own sin, and became an inmate of Hell. And that is the requital for the unjust."

Then the other was induced by his passion to murder his brother, and he killed him, and became one of the damned.

Then God sent a raven which scratched the ground in order to show him how to hide the nakedness of his brother. "Alas, the woe," said he, "that I could not be even like the raven and hide the nakedness of my brother," and was filled with remorse.

That is why We decreed for the children of Israel that whosoever kills a human being, except (as punishment) for murder or for spreading corruption in the land, it shall be like killing all humanity; and whosoever saves a life, saves the entire human race. Our apostles brought clear proofs to them; but even after that most of them committed excesses in the land.