۞ Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and therefrom We shall bring you forth once again. 55 And assuredly We shewed him Our signs, all of them, but he belied and refused. 56 And said: "Have you come to us, O Moses, to drive us out of our land with your witchery? 57 We shall confront you with a sorcery like your own. So appoint a day when both of us might meet face to face in an open space; an appointment which neither we nor you shall fail to keep." 58 Said (Moses): "Let your meeting be on the day of the Feast, and let people assemble in broad daylight." 59 Thereupon Pharaoh withdrew [with his counsellors] and decided upon the scheme which he would pursue; and then he came [to the tryst]. 60 and Moses said to them, 'O beware! Forge not a lie against God, lest He destroy you with a chastisement. Whoso forges has ever failed.' 61 Then they debated one with another what they must do, and they kept their counsel secret. 62 saying: 'These two are sorcerers whose aim is to drive you from your land by their sorcery and destroy your noble ways. 63 So arrange your plan, and come in battle line. Whoso is uppermost this day will be indeed successful. 64 They said, "O Moses, either you throw or we will 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 and in his heart Moses became apprehensive. 67 We told him, "Do not be afraid for you will be the winner. 68 And throw down what is in your right hand; it will swallow up all that they have wrought. They have wrought only a magician's stratagem. A magician cannot come to any good, come whence he may." 69 The magicians bowed down in prostration saying, "We believe in the Lord of Moses and Aaron". 70 [Pharaoh] said, "You believed him before I gave you permission. Indeed, he is your leader who has taught you magic. So I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on the trunks of palm trees, and you will surely know which of us is more severe in [giving] punishment and more enduring." 71 They said: we shall by no means prefer thee to that which hath come to us of the evidences, and Him Who hath created us; so decree thou whatsoever thou shalt decree; thou canst only decree in respect of the life of this world. 72 "For us, we have believed in our Lord: may He forgive us our faults, and the magic to which thou didst compel us: for Allah is Best and Most Abiding." 73 Verily whosoever cometh unto his lord as a culprit, for him is Hell wherein he will neither die nor live. 74 And whosoever cometh unto Him as a believer, and he hath done righteous works - then these! for them are ranks high. 75 gardens of perpetual bliss, through which running waters flow, therein to abide: for that shall be the recompense of all who attain to purity. 76