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They said, ‘Moses, will you throw first or shall we?’

‘You throw,’ said Moses, and––lo and behold!––through their sorcery, their ropes and staffs seemed to him to be moving.

Moses was inwardly alarmed,

but We said, ‘Do not be afraid, you have the upper hand.

Throw down what is in your right hand: it will swallow up what they have produced. They have only produced the tricks of a sorcerer, and a sorcerer will not prosper, wherever he goes.’

[So it was, and] the sorcerers threw themselves down in submission. ‘We believe,’ they said, ‘in the Lord of Aaron and Moses.’

Pharaoh said, ‘How dare you believe in him before I have given you permission? This must be your master, the man who taught you witchcraft. I shall certainly cut off your alternate hands and feet, then crucify you on the trunks of palm trees. You will know for certain which of us has the fiercer and more lasting punishment.’

They said, ‘We shall never prefer you to the clear sign that has come to us, nor to Him who created us. So decide whatever you will: you can only decide matters of this present life-

we believe in our Lord, [hoping] He may forgive us our sins and the sorcery that you forced us to practise- God is better and more lasting.’

Hell will be the reward of those who return to their Lord as evildoers: there they will stay, neither living nor dying.

But those who return to their Lord as believers with righteous deeds will be rewarded with the highest of ranks,

Gardens of lasting bliss graced with flowing streams, and there they will stay. Such is the reward of those who purify themselves.