۞ From the (earth) did We create you, and into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you out once again. 55 We showed the Pharaoh all of Our miracles, but he called them lies and turned away from them. 56 'Hast thou come, Moses,' he said, 'to expel us out of our land 57 We shall also answer you by magic. Let us make an appointment for a contest among us and let each of us be present at a certain time in the appointed place". 58 Answered [Moses]: "Your tryst shall be the day of the Festival; and let the people assemble when the sun is risen high." 59 Thereupon Pharaoh withdrew [with his counsellors] and decided upon the scheme which he would pursue; and then he came [to the tryst]. 60 Moses said unto them: Woe unto you! Invent not a lie against Allah, lest He extirpate you by some punishment. He who lieth faileth miserably. 61 So they discussed their strategy among themselves and conferred privately, 62 They said: "These two are certainly (expert) magicians: their object is to drive you out from your land with their magic, and to do away with your most cherished institutions. 63 "So devise your plot, and then assemble in line. And whoever overcomes this day will be indeed successful." 64 They said to Moses: 'Will you throw down or shall we be the first? 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: "Fear not. You will certainly be victorious. 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 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 We believe in our Lord, that He may pardon us our offences, and the sorcery thou hast constrained us to practise; God is better, and more abiding.' 73 Verily he who comes to his Lord as a sinner (at Judgment),- for him is Hell: therein shall he neither die nor live. 74 But whoso cometh unto Him a believer, having done good works, for such are the high stations; 75 The gardens of perpetuity, beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein; and this is the reward of him who has purified himself. 76