۞ Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and therefrom We shall bring you forth once again. 55 We showed Pharaoh all Our signs but he rejected them and refused to believe in them. 56 He said, "Have you come to us to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Moses? 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 'Your tryst shall be upon the Feast Day.' said Moses. 'Let the people be mustered at the high noon.' 59 So Firaun went away and gathered his schemes,* then came. (* 72000 magicians and their materials.) 60 Said Moses to them: "Woe unto you! Do not invent lies against God, lest He afflict you with most grievous suffering: for He who contrives [such] a lie is already undone!" 61 So they disputed over their affair among themselves and concealed their private conversation. 62 saying, 'These two men are sorcerers and their purpose is to expel you out of your land by their sorcery, and to extirpate your justest way. 63 Therefore settle your plan, then come standing in ranks and he will prosper indeed this day who overcomes. 64 The magicians said: "Moses, will you throw down or shall we be the first to throw?" 65 Moses replied: 'No, you throw first' And by their sorcery it seemed to him that their ropes and staffs were sliding. 66 So Moses conceived in his mind a (sort of) fear. 67 We said to him: "Have no fear; for it is you who will prevail. 68 And [now] throw that [staff] which is in thy right hand - it shall swallow up all that they have wrought: [for] they have wrought only a sorcerer's artifice, and the sorcerer can never come to any good, whatever he may aim at!" 69 So the magicians fell down in prostration. They said, "We have believed in the Lord of Aaron and Moses." 70 (The Pharaoh) said: "You have come to believe without my dispensation. Surely he is your chief who taught you magic. I will have your hands and feet cut off on alternate sides and crucify you on the trunks of date-palm trees. You will come to know whose punishment is harder and protracted." 71 They said: We do not prefer you to what has come to us of clear arguments and to He Who made us, therefore decide what you are going to decide; you can only decide about this world's life. 72 As for us, behold, we have come to believe in our Sustainer, [hoping] that He may forgive us our faults and all that magic unto which thou hast forced us: for God is the best [to look forward to,] and the One who is truly abiding." 73 Whosoever comes unto his Lord a sinner, for him awaits Gehenna wherein he shall neither die nor live. 74 And whoso comes unto Him a believer having done deeds of righteousness, those -- for them await the most sublime degrees; 75 Gardens of Eden, underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever; that is the recompense of the self-purified. 76