Those who have come up with the false imputation are a gang among you. Do not think it is bad for you; rather, it is good for you. Everyone of them is liable for what he earned of the sin. And the one who undertook the major part of it, for him there is a mighty punishment.

] Why - when you (0 believers) heard of it - did the believing men and the believing women not think well on their own selves and (why did they not) say, ` This is a manifest lie'.

Why did they (the accusers) not bring four witnesses to prove this? So, as they did not bring the witnesses, they are the liars in the sight of Allah.

And had it not been for the grace of Allah upon you, and His mercy in this world and in the Hereafter, a great punishment would have reached you for what you got indulged in -

] when you were welcoming it with your tongues and were saying with your mouths something of which you had no knowledge, and were taking it as a trivial matter, while in the sight of Allah it was grave.

And why, when you heard of it, did you not say, ` It is not for us to speak about this. Pure are You (0 Allah). This is a terrible calumny,'

Allah admonishes you never to repeat something like this, if you are believers.

And Allah makes the signs clear to you. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.

Surely, those who like that shamelessness spreads among the believers, for them there is painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know.

And had it not been for the grace of Allah upon you, and His mercy and that Allah is Very-Kind, Very-Merciful (you would have been destroyed).