۞ Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and thence We bring you forth a second time. 55 So We showed him (Pharaoh) Our signs, all of them, but he belied and refused them. 56 He said to Moses, "Have you come to expel us from our land through your magic? 57 "But we can surely produce magic to match thine! So make a tryst between us and thee, which we shall not fail to keep - neither we nor thou - in a place where both shall have even chances." 58 'Your tryst shall be upon the Feast Day.' said Moses. 'Let the people be mustered at the high noon.' 59 So Pharaoh went away, put together his plan, and then came [to Moses]. 60 Musa said to them: Woe to you! do not forge a lie against Allah, lest He destroy you by a punishment, and he who forges (a lie) indeed fails to attain (his desire). 61 So they differed with one another in their task, and secretly conferred. 62 They said, “Undoubtedly these two are magicians for sure, who wish to expel you from your land by the strength of their magic, and destroy your exemplary religion!” 63 Gather your guile and then lineup a rank those who gain the upper hand today shall indeed prosper' 64 Said [the sorcerers]: "O Moses! Either thou throw [thy staff first,] or we shall be the first to throw." 65 He said, "Rather, you throw." And suddenly their ropes and staffs seemed to him from their magic that they were moving [like snakes]. 66 And Moses felt afraid within himself. 67 But We said to him: 'Do not be afraid; you shall surely be the uppermost. 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 So the magicians fell down in prostration. They said, "We have believed in the Lord of Aaron and Moses." 70 (Pharaoh) said: Ye put faith in him before I give you leave. Lo! he is your chief who taught you magic. Now surely I shall cut off your hands and your feet alternately, and I shall crucify you on the trunks of palm trees, and ye shall know for certain which of us hath sterner and more lasting punishment. 71 The magicians answered: "By Him Who has created us, we shall never prefer you to the Truth after manifest Signs have come to us. So decree whatever you will. Your decree will pertain, at the most, to the present life of the world. 72 "For us, we have believed in our Lord: may He forgive us our faults, and the magic to which thou didst compel us: for Allah is Best and Most Abiding." 73 Surely for him who comes before his Lord a sinner shall be Hell, where he will neither die nor live. 74 And whosoever cometh unto Him as a believer, and he hath done righteous works - then these! for them are ranks high. 75 The gardens of perpetuity, beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein; and this is the reward of him who has purified himself. 76