۞ From the earth We have created you and We will return you to it, and from it We shall bring you forth a second time. 55 And truly We showed him Our signs, all of them, but he rejected and refused. 56 He said: "Have you come to us to drive us out of our land by your sorcery? 57 "Then verily, we can produce magic the like thereof; so appoint a meeting between us and you, which neither we, nor you shall fail to keep, in an open wide place where both shall have a just and equal chance (and beholders could witness the competition)." 58 Moses said, "The day of the encounter will be the day of the festival, and let the people assemble when the sun has risen high." 59 So Firon turned his back and settled his plan, then came. 60 Moses said to them, "Woe to you! Do not invent lies against God, lest He destroy you by some calamity: whoever invents lies is bound to fail." 61 So they discussed their strategy among themselves and conferred privately, 62 and said, "These two people are magicians. They want to expel you from your land through their magic and to destroy your own tradition. 63 Wherefore devise your stratagem, and then come in a row; and prospered today is he who overcometh. 64 They said: "O Moses! whether wilt thou that thou throw (first) or that we be the first to throw?" 65 He said: Nay! cast down. then lo! their cords and their rods-- it was imaged to him on account of their magic as if they were running. 66 So Moses conceived in his mind a (sort of) fear. 67 [But] We said: "Fear not! Verily, it is thou who shalt prevail! 68 And cast thou down that which is in thy right hand: it shall swallow up that which they have wrought; They have wrought only a magician's stratagem; and the magician prospereth not wheresoever he cometh. 69 Then the wizards were (all) flung down prostrate, crying: We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses. 70 Said Firaun, “You accepted faith in him before I permitted you! He is indeed your leader who taught you magic; I therefore swear, I will cut off your hands and your legs from alternate sides, and crucify you on the trunks of palm-trees, and you will surely come to know among us two, whose punishment is more severe and more lasting.” 71 They answered: "Never shall we prefer thee to all the evidence of the truth that has come unto us, nor to Him who has brought us into being! Decree, then, whatever thou art going to decree: thou canst decree only [something that pertains to] this worldly life! 72 “Indeed we have accepted faith in our Lord, so that He may forgive us our sins and the magic which you forced us to perform; and Allah is Better, and the Most Lasting.” 73 Gehenna (Hell) awaits whosoever comes before his Lord as a sinner, there he shall neither die nor live. 74 But such as come to Him as Believers who have worked righteous deeds,- for them are ranks exalted,- 75 The gardens of perpetuity, beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein; and this is the reward of him who has purified himself. 76