۞ From the earth We have created you, and to it We shall return you, and from it We shall raise you again. 55 We showed Pharaoh all Our signs but he rejected them and refused to believe in them. 56 'Hast thou come, Moses,' he said, 'to expel us out of our land 57 by thy sorcery? We shall assuredly bring thee sorcery the like of it; therefore appoint a tryst between us and thee, a place mutually agreeable, and we shall not fail it, neither thou.' 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 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 So they differed with one another in their task, and secretly conferred. 62 and said, "These two people are magicians. They want to expel you from your land through their magic and to destroy your own tradition. 63 Wherefore devise your stratagem, and then come in a row; and prospered today is he who overcometh. 64 They said, “O Moosa, either you throw first – or shall we throw first?” 65 He said: nay, cast ye down. And lo! their cords and their staves were made to appear to him by their magic as though they were running. 66 Then a kind of fear in his soul Musa felt. 67 We said to him: "Fear not. You will certainly be victorious. 68 And throw what is in your right hand; it will swallow up what they have crafted. What they have crafted is but the trick of a magician, and the magician will not succeed wherever he is." 69 Eventually the magicians were impelled to fall down prostrate and said: "We believe in the Lord of Moses and Aaron." 70 (Pharaoh) said: "Believe ye in Him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader, who has taught you magic! be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm-trees: so shall ye know for certain, which of us can give the more severe and the 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 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 And the one who presents himself as a believer before Him, having done good deeds – so for them are the high ranks. 75 living for ever in the Gardens of Eden, underneath which rivers flow. Such shall be the recompense of he who purifies himself. 76