۞ 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 'Hast thou come, Moses,' he said, 'to expel us out of our land 57 In that case, we shall most certainly produce before thee the like thereof! Appoint, then, a tryst between us and thee - which we shall not fail to keep, nor [mayest] thou - at a suitable place!" 58 Moses said: "Your tryst is the Day of the Festival, and let the people be assembled when the sun is well up." 59 So Fir'aun (Pharaoh) withdrew, devised his plot and then came back. 60 Moses said to them: "Woe betide you. Do not fabricate a lie against God, or He will destroy you with some affliction. For he who fabricates lies is doomed to failure." 61 Then they [the magicians] conferred among themselves, whispering to one another. 62 They said, "Indeed, these are two magicians who want to drive you out of your land with their magic and do away with your most exemplary way. 63 Wherefore devise your stratagem, and then come in a row; and prospered today is he who overcometh. 64 The magicians said: "Moses, will you throw down or shall we be the first to throw?" 65 Moses said, "You throw down first." Suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him, by their magic, to be moving about rapidly, 66 Moses became fearful within himself. 67 We said: "Fear not! for thou hast indeed the upper hand: 68 Cast down what is in thy right hand, and it shall swallow what they have fashioned; for they have fashioned only the guile of a sorcerer, and the sorcerer prospers not; wherever he goes.' 69 Then the wizards were (all) flung down prostrate, crying: We believe in the Lord of Aaron and 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 will not prefer thee over the clear signs that have come to us, nor over Him who originated us. Decide then what thou wilt decide; thou canst only decide touching this present life. 72 Lo! we believe in our Lord, that He may forgive us our sins and the magic unto which thou didst force us. Allah is better and more lasting. 73 Gehenna (Hell) awaits whosoever comes before his Lord as a sinner, there he shall neither die nor live. 74 But he who comes to Him as a believer, having done good deeds, shall be exalted to the highest ranks, 75 The gardens of perpetuity, beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein; and this is the reward of him who has purified himself. 76