۞ From the earth We have created you, and to it We shall return you, and from it We shall raise you again. 55 So We showed Pharaoh all Our signs, but he cried lies, and refused. 56 He said: Hast come to drive us out from our land by thy magic, O Moses? 57 So We shall surely bring unto thee a magic the like thereof; so Make between us and thee an appointment which neither we nor thou shall fail in some open space. 58 [Moses] said, "Your appointment is on the day of the festival when the people assemble at mid-morning." 59 So Firaun went away and gathered his schemes,* then came. (* 72000 magicians and their materials.) 60 (At the time of the encounter) Moses said to them: "Woe to you! Do not invent falsehoods against Allah lest He destroy you with a scourge. Surely those who invent lies shall come to grief." 61 So they discussed their strategy among themselves and conferred privately, 62 They said: Lo! these are two wizards who would drive you out from your country by their magic, and destroy your best traditions; 63 "So devise your plot, and then assemble in line. And whoever overcomes this day will be indeed successful." 64 They said: O Musa! will you cast, or shall we be the first who cast down? 65 He said: Nay, do ye throw! Then lo! their cords and their staves, by their magic, appeared to him as though they ran. 66 And he sensed within himself apprehension, did Moses. 67 We told him, "Do not be afraid for you will be the winner. 68 And cast down what is in your right hand; it shall devour what they have wrought; they have wrought only the plan of a magician, and the magician shall not be successful wheresoever he may come from. 69 So the magicians fell down prostrate. They said: "We believe in the Lord of Harun (Aaron) and Musa (Moses)." 70 Said [Pharaoh]: "Have you come to believe in him ere I have given you permission? Verily, he must be your master who has taught you magic! But I shall most certainly cut off your hands and feet in great numbers, because of [your] perverseness, and I shall most certainly crucify you in great numbers on trunks of palm-trees: and [I shall do this] so that you might come to know for certain as to which of us [two] can inflict a more severe chastisement, and [which] is the more abiding!" 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 have certainly come to believe in our Lord that He may forgive our trespasses and the magic you have forced us to perform, for God is nobler and 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 whoever comes to Him (Allah) as a believer (in the Oneness of Allah, etc.), and has done righteous good deeds, for such are the high ranks (in the Hereafter), 75 'Adn (Edn) Paradise (everlasting Gardens), under which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever: such is the reward of those who purify themselves [(by abstaining from all kinds of sins and evil deeds) which Allah has forbidden and by doing all that which Allah has ordained)]. 76