Quran — Page 316

Said [the sorcerers]: "O Moses! Either thou throw (thy staff first], or we shall be the first to throw."

He answered: "Nay, you throw [first]." And lo! by virtue of their sorcery, their [magic] ropes and staffs seemed to him to be moving rapidly:

and in his heart Moses became apprehensive.

[But] We said: "Fear not! Verily, it is thou who shalt prevail!

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!"

[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!"

Said [Pharaoh]: "Have you come to believe in him ere I have given you permission? Verily, he must be your master who has taught you magic! But I shall most certainly cut off your hands and feet in great numbers, because of [your] perverseness, and I shall most certainly crucify you in great numbers on trunks of palm-trees: and [I shall do this] so that you might come to know for certain as to which of us [two] can inflict a more severe chastisement, and [which] is the more abiding!"

They answered: "Never shall we prefer thee to all the evidence of the truth that has come unto us, nor to Him who has brought us into being! Decree, then, whatever thou art going to decree: thou canst decree only [something that pertains to] this worldly life!

As for us, behold, we have come to believe in our Sustainer, [hoping] that He may forgive us our faults and all that magic unto which thou hast forced us: for God is the best [to look forward to], and the One who is truly abiding."

VERILY, as for him who shall appear before his Sustainer [on Judgment Day] lost in sin - his [portion], behold, shall be hell: he will neither die therein nor live;

whereas he who shall appear before Him as a believer who has done righteous deeds - it is such that shall have lofty stations [in the life to come]:

gardens of perpetual bliss, through which running waters flow, therein to abide: for that shall be the recompense of all who attain to purity.