۞ 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 We showed Pharaoh all Our Signs, but he did reject and refuse. 56 He said: art thou come unto us that thou mayest drive us out of our land by thy magic, O Musa! 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 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 Fir'aun (Pharaoh) withdrew, devised his plot and then came back. 60 Moses said to him: Woe to you! Forge not ye a lie against Allah, lest He destroy you (at once) utterly by chastisement: the forger must suffer frustration!" 61 They started arguing and whispering to each other 62 They said: verily these two are magicians, intending to drive you forth from your land by their magic and to do away with your superior way. 63 "So devise your plot, and then assemble in line. And whoever overcomes this day will be indeed successful." 64 They said: "O Moses! whether wilt thou that thou throw (first) or that we be the first to throw?" 65 Moses said, "You throw down first." Suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him, by their magic, to be moving about rapidly, 66 Moses felt afraid within himself. 67 [But] We said: "Fear not! Verily, it is thou who shalt prevail! 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 (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 choose thee not above the clear proofs that have come unto us, and above Him Who created us. So decree what thou wilt decree. Thou wilt end for us only this life of the world. 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 Indeed, he who comes to his Lord a sinner shall be consigned to Hell; he shall neither die therein nor live. 74 But he who comes to Him with faith and righteous works shall be exalted to high ranks, 75 Gardens of Eden, underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever; that is the recompense of the self-purified. 76