Mealler

He said, "What then has happened to the previous generations?

He said, "Its knowledge is with my Lord, in a record. My Lord does not err or forget."

The One who made for you the earth habitable and He made ways for you in it, and He brought down water from the sky, so We brought out with it pairs of vegetation of all types.

Eat and raise your livestock, in that are signs for those of thought.

From it We created you and in it We return you, and from it We bring you out another time.

We showed him Our signs, all of them, but he denied and refused.

He said, "Have you come to us to take us out of our land with your magic O Moses?"

"We will bring you a magic like it, so let us make an appointment between us and you which neither of us will break, a place where we both agree."

He said, "Your appointment is the day of festival, and when the people start crowding during the late morning."

So Pharaoh went away, and he gathered his scheming then he came.

Moses said to them: "Woe to you, do not invent lies about God; else the retribution will take you, and miserable is the one who invents."

So they disputed in their matter between themselves, and they kept secret their council.

They said, "These are but two magicians who want to take you out of your land with their magic, and they want to do away with your ideal way.

"So agree upon your scheme, then come as one front. Whoever wins today will succeed."

They said, "O Moses, either you cast down or we will be the first to cast down."

He said, "No, you cast down." So their ropes and staffs appeared from their magic as if they were moving.

Moses held some fear in himself.

We said, "Do not fear, you will best them."

"Cast down what is in your right hand; it will consume what they have made. They have only made the work of a magician, and the magician will not succeed no matter what he does."

So the magicians went down in prostration. They said, "We acknowledge the Lord of Aaron and Moses."

He said, "Have you acknowledged him before taking my permission? He is surely your great one who has taught you magic. So, I will cut off your hands and feet from alternate sides, and I will crucify you on the trunks of the palm trees, and you will come to know which of us is greater in retribution and more lasting!"

They said, "We will not prefer you over the proofs that have come to us, and over the One who initiated us. So issue whatever judgment you have, for you only issue judgment in this worldly life."

"We have acknowledged our Lord that He may forgive us our sins, and what you had forced us into doing of magic. God is better and everlasting."

He who comes to his Lord as a criminal, he will have hell, where he will neither die in it nor live.

He who comes to Him as an acknowledger doing good works, for those will be the highest ranks.