۞ From this very earth We created you and to the same earth We shall cause you to return, and from it We shall bring you forth to life again. 55 AND, INDEED, We made Pharaoh aware of all Our messages - but he gave them the lie and refused [to heed them]. 56 He [Fir'aun (Pharaoh)] said: "Have you come to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Musa (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 Musa said: your appointment is the gala day, and that the people be gathered in the forenoon. 59 After this the Pharaoh withdrew and settled his stratagem, then came back. 60 Musa said unto them: woe unto you! fabricate not against Allah a lie, lest he extirpate you with a torment, and surely He who fabricateth, loseth. 61 Thereupon they wrangled among themselves about the matter and conferred in secret. 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 Wherefore devise your stratagem, and then come in a row; and prospered today is he who overcometh. 64 They said: O Musa! will you cast, or shall we be the first who cast down? 65 Moses replied: "No, let it be you to throw first." Then suddenly it appeared to Moses, owing to their magic, as if their ropes and staffs were running. 66 So Musa conceived in his mind a fear. 67 We said: "Fear not! for thou hast indeed the upper hand: 68 Throw down what is in your right hand: It will swallow up what they have conjured. For what they have fashioned is only a trick of the sorcerer; and a sorcerer does not succeed wherever he may come." 69 Thereafter the sorcerers threw themselves down, prostrating, saying: 'We believe 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 Verily we! we have believed in our Lord, that he may forgive us our faults, and that to which thou hast constrained us in the way of magic; and Allah is Best and Most Lasting. 73 The truth is that Hell awaits him who comes to his Lord laden with sin; he shall neither die in it nor live. 74 But such as come to Him as Believers who have worked righteous deeds,- for them are ranks exalted,- 75 Everlasting Gardens of Eden beneath which rivers flow, abiding in them for ever; and this is the reward of one who became pure. 76