۞ We created you from it (the earth), and to it We shall restore you; and from it We will bring you forth yet a second time. 55 AND, INDEED, We made Pharaoh aware of all Our messages - but he gave them the lie and refused [to heed them]. 56 He said: "Hast thou come to drive us out of our land by thy sorcery, O Moses? 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 (Moses) said: Your tryst shall be the day of the feast, and let the people assemble when the sun hath risen high. 59 So Firaun went away and gathered his schemes,* then came. (* 72000 magicians and their materials.) 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 Then they [the magicians] conferred among themselves, whispering to one another. 62 They said: "These two are certainly (expert) magicians: their object is to drive you out from your land with their magic, and to do away with your most cherished institutions. 63 So gather your guile; then come in battle-line. Whoever today gains the upper hand shall surely prosper. 64 They said: "Either you cast (your spell), O Moses, or we shall cast it first." 65 He answered: "Nay, you throw [first]." And lo! by virtue of their sorcery, their [magic] ropes and staffs seemed to him to be moving rapidly: 66 Then a kind of fear in his soul Musa felt. 67 We said, “Do not fear – it is you who is dominant.” 68 And [now] throw that [staff] which is in thy right hand - it shall swallow up all that they have wrought: [for] they have wrought only a sorcerer's artifice, and the sorcerer can never come to any good, whatever he may aim at!" 69 Then the wizards were (all) flung down prostrate, crying: We believe in the Lord of Aaron and Moses. 70 The Pharaoh said, "Since you believed in him without my permission, then Moses certainly must be your chief who has taught you magic. I shall cut your hands and feet on alternate sides and crucify you on the trunk of the palm-tree. You shall certainly find which among us can afflict a more severe and lasting punishment". 71 They replied: "We cannot choose you in the face of the clear testimony we have received, and over Him who created us. So do what you are determined to do. All that you would do will only be confined to our life on earth. 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 Lo! whoso cometh guilty unto his Lord, verily for him is hell. There 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 Gardens of perpetual residence beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally. And that is the reward of one who purifies himself. 76