۞ From it We created you and into it We shall send you back and from it will We raise you a second time. 55 AND, INDEED, We made Pharaoh aware of all Our messages - but he gave them the lie and refused [to heed them]. 56 He said: 'Moses, have you come to drive us from our land with 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, "Let the contest take place on the Day of Feast so that all the people can come together during the brightness of the day." 59 So Pharaoh withdrew: He concerted his plan, and then came (back). 60 Moses told them, (the magicians) "Woe to you if you invent falsehood against God; you will be destroyed by the torment. Whoever invents falsehood against God will certainly be lost." 61 They started arguing and whispering to each other 62 They said, "Certainly they are both magicians who want to drive you out of your land by their magic, and destroy your best traditions. 63 So resolve upon your plan and then come [forward] in line. And he has succeeded today who overcomes." 64 They said, 'Moses, either thou wilt cast, or we shall be the first to cast.' 65 Moses said, "You throw down first." Suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him, by their magic, to be moving about rapidly, 66 And he sensed within himself apprehension, did Moses. 67 We said: "Fear not! for thou hast indeed the upper hand: 68 And throw what is in your right hand; it will swallow up what they have crafted. What they have crafted is but the trick of a magician, and the magician will not succeed wherever he is." 69 [And so it happened and down fell the sorcerers, prostrating themselves in adoration, [and] exclaimed: "We have come to believe in the Sustainer 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 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 Surely we believe in our Lord that He may forgive us our sins and the magic to which you compelled us; and Allah is better and more abiding. 73 Indeed, whoever comes to his Lord as a criminal - indeed, for him is Hell; he will neither die therein nor live. 74 But whoever comes before Him a believer having done good deeds, will be raised to higher 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