۞ From the earth We have created you and We will return you to it, and from it We shall bring you forth a second time. 55 We showed Pharaoh all Our signs but he rejected them and refused to believe in them. 56 He said: "Have you come to us to drive us out of our land by your sorcery? 57 So we too will produce before you magic like it, therefore make between us and you an appointment, which we should not break, (neither) we nor you, (in) a central 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 Pharaoh withdrew, devised his stratagem and returned. 60 Moses said to him: Woe to you! Forge not ye a lie against Allah, lest He destroy you (at once) utterly by chastisement: the forger must suffer frustration!" 61 They disputed upon their plan with one another, and spoke in secret 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 prepare your strategy and come forward. He alone shall win today who is superior." 64 The magicians said: "Moses, will you throw down or shall we be the first to throw?" 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 in his heart Moses became apprehensive. 67 We said: fear not! verily thou! thou shalt be the superior. 68 And throw down what is in your right hand; it will swallow up all that they have wrought. They have wrought only a magician's stratagem. A magician cannot come to any good, come whence he may." 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 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 believe in our Lord so that He forgives us our sins and the sorcery you have forced us to practice. Allah is Better, and Everlasting' 73 Surely for him who comes before his Lord a sinner shall be Hell, where he will neither die nor live. 74 But whoever comes to Him as a believer having done righteous deeds - for those will be the highest degrees [in position]: 75 The gardens of perpetuity, beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein; and this is the reward of him who has purified himself. 76