۞ Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and thence We bring you forth a second time. 55 And We showed Pharaoh all Our Signs, but he did reject and refuse. 56 He said: "Hast thou come to drive us out of our land by thy sorcery, O Moses? 57 But we surely can produce for thee magic the like thereof; so appoint a tryst between us and you, which neither we nor thou shall fail to keep, at a place convenient (to us both). 58 Moses said: "The appointment to meet you is on the Day of the Feast and let all people come together before noon." 59 Then Pharaoh went and gathered his strength, then came (to the appointed tryst). 60 Said Moses to them: "Woe unto you! Do not invent lies against God, lest He afflict you with most grievous suffering: for He who contrives [such] a lie is already undone!" 61 Then they debated with one another what they must do, and they kept their talk secret. 62 saying, 'These two men are sorcerers and their purpose is to expel you out of your land by their sorcery, and to extirpate your justest way. 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 said: "No. You cast it first" Then it seemed to Moses that by their magic their cords and rods were flying; 66 and Moses conceived a fear within him. 67 We said to him: "Have no fear; for it is you who will prevail. 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 And the sorcerers cast themselves down prostrating. 'We believe,' they said, 'in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.' 70 Pharaoh said: "What! Did you believe in Him even before I permitted you to do so? Surely, he must be your chief who taught you magic. Now I will certainly cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and will crucify you on the trunks of palm-trees, and then you will come to know which of us can inflict sterner and more lasting torment." 71 They answered: "Never shall we prefer thee to all the evidence of the truth that has come unto us, nor to Him who has brought us into being! Decree, then, whatever thou art going to decree: thou canst decree only [something that pertains to] this worldly life! 72 We believe in our Lord, that He may pardon us our offences, and the sorcery thou hast constrained us to practise; God is better, and more abiding.' 73 Indeed the one who comes guilty to his Lord – so undoubtedly for him is hell; neither dying nor living in it. 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