۞ Thereof We created you, and thereunto We return you, and therefrom We shall bring you forth once again. 55 Indeed We showed Pharaoh Our Signs, all of them, but he declared them to be false and rejected them. 56 He said: "Have you come to us to drive us out of our land by your sorcery? 57 We shall confront you with a sorcery like your own. So appoint a day when both of us might meet face to face in an open space; an appointment which neither we nor you shall fail to keep." 58 Said (Moses): "Let your meeting be on the day of the Feast, and let people assemble in broad daylight." 59 So Fir'aun (Pharaoh) withdrew, devised his plot and then came back. 60 Moses said to them, "Woe to you! Do not invent lies against God, lest He destroy you by some calamity: whoever invents lies is bound to fail." 61 Then they debated one with another what they must do, and they kept their counsel secret. 62 They said: Lo! these are two wizards who would drive you out from your country by their magic, and destroy your best traditions; 63 Hence, [O sorcerers of Egypt,] decide upon the scheme which you will pursue, and then come forward in one single body: for, indeed, he who prevails today shall prosper indeed!" 64 They said:"O Musa (Moses)! Either you throw first or 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 So Moses conceived in his mind a (sort of) fear. 67 We said: Fear not, surely you shall be the uppermost, 68 And cast thou down that which is in thy right hand: it shall swallow up that which they have wrought; They have wrought only a magician's stratagem; and the magician prospereth not wheresoever he cometh. 69 Eventually the magicians were impelled to fall down prostrate and said: "We believe in the Lord of Moses and Aaron." 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 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 that He may forgive us our sins and also forgive us the practice of magic to which you had compelled us. Allah is the Best and He alone will abide." 73 Gehenna (Hell) awaits whosoever comes before his Lord as a sinner, there he shall neither die nor live. 74 But whoever comes before Him a believer having done good deeds, will be raised to higher stations -- 75 Gardens of Eden, underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever; that is the recompense of the self-purified. 76