۞ From the earth We have created you, and to it We shall return you, and from it We shall raise you again. 55 And We certainly showed Pharaoh Our signs - all of them - but he denied and refused. 56 He said: "Hast thou come to drive us out of our land by thy sorcery, O Moses? 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 appointment is on the day of the festival when the people assemble at mid-morning." 59 So Firaun went away and gathered his schemes,* then came. (* 72000 magicians and their materials.) 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 So they disputed over their affair among themselves and concealed their private conversation. 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 So gather your guile; then come in battle-line. Whoever today gains the upper hand shall surely prosper. 64 They said: "O Moses! whether wilt thou that thou throw (first) or that 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 So Musa conceived in his mind a fear. 67 We (Allah) said: "Fear not! Surely, you will have the upper hand. 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 [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 choose thee not above the clear proofs that have come unto us, and above Him Who created us. So decree what thou wilt decree. Thou wilt end for us only this life of the world. 72 Verily we! we have believed in our Lord, that he may forgive us our faults, and that to which thou hast constrained us in the way of magic; and Allah is Best and Most Lasting. 73 Lo! whoso cometh guilty unto his Lord, verily for him is hell. There he will neither die nor live. 74 But such as come to Him as Believers who have worked righteous deeds,- for them are ranks exalted,- 75 Gardens Everlasting whereunder rivers flow: abiders therein; that is the meed of him who hath purified himself. 76