When God Spoke to Moses: Biography of a Mighty Prophet

Preface

Allah’s blessings be upon the Messenger Moses who is known in Islam as Musa son of Imran (alahissalam) and blessings be upon his brother Aaron who is known as Harun son of Imran (alahissalam).

The objective of this book is to establish an in-depth narrative using sources from the Holy Qur’an, classical and contemporary exegeses, Hadith collections and as a reference the Holy Bible (where useful). With as much historical analysis as we are able to use and resources, we wish to tell the story in a chronological format; starting with the Hyksos in Egypt to the Day of Judgment. Such a format will be used to tell it as a story. Dialogue directly from the Qur’an is in bold, Qur’an Ayat will be bold-italic, and other dialogue or references will be in italic.

Why is Moses spoken about more than any other Prophet in the Qur’an? Who is Fir’aun (Pharaoh) or the individual known as Haman? What is the Torah from the Islamic perspective? Hopefully many answers will be provided by reading this book thoroughly.

It is a fact that the Qur’an is not a storybook from a beginning to an end; rather it is a book of Signs (Ayat) and the Reminder. The Qur’an does not usually provide a chronological story of events as each of the Signs in the Qur’an was given to the Prophet Muhammad (salallahu alahi wasalam) for a given period of time in his life. The Qur’an itself isn’t set in chronological order of revelation either; rather it was compiled for the Recitation as the meaning of the Qur’an is seen as ‘the Reciter’.

From comforting the Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu alahi wasalam) about what Moses (alahissalam) went through with his people and Pharaoh to reminding the Children of Israel of Allah’s favours, it is apparent that the Qur’an is a unique structure meant for recitation and pondering for the previous, present and future generations.

It is with this understanding that we find repetition in the Qur’an and with such we may find slightly different wording pertaining to dialogue or the way the story is told in order to awaken the purpose of each Sign. For example we may find a reminder of what Moses went through in a few Ayat, while in another place we find a similar reminder that is told in a larger number of Ayat.

I hope and pray that Allah the Most High forgives me for any error that I may cause in this book for He alone holds the absolute knowledge.

Brief Look at Israelites and Egypt

The Israelites are a people referred to in the Holy Qur’an as the Children of Israel (45:16). The origins start with the twelve tribes (7:160) of the Prophet Jacob (alahissalam) whose name is referred in Israelite texts as Israel. The Qur’an confirms the name of Israel (19:58) to be referring to Jacob.

The first Egyptian record of the name of Israel is found in Cairo Museum today known as the Merneptah Stele. This black granite slab has an inscription that is translated to be Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more. It was a stele of Pharaoh Merneptah (the heir of Rameses II) of his accomplishments in the late 13th century BCE. It may have referred to a possible conquest of a group of Israelites whose grain was destroyed in the land of Canaan before his campaigns with the Libyans.

Such a record verifies the existence of Israelites or Hebrews who have been seen as natural allies with the Hittites. The real question remains among historians and archeologists is what motives Merneptah had for the destruction of these Israelites?

Ancient Egypt has a vast and long history, and for two centuries the Dynasties fought against the Hittite Empire; a people with its origins in modern-day Turkey. The Hittite Empire reached its peak at around 1300 BCE (before the advent of Rameses II) with its Empire expanding from Anatolia to the city of Kadesh in the Levant; bordering the Egyptian Empire by the land of Canaan.

According to Israelite history, the Hittites and Israelites were common allies. Because of this commonality, it was likely seen by the Egyptians that such Israelites who were allied with their enemies deserved to be treated as enemies or slaves.

Israelites according to the Qur’an were trading in Egypt due to a drought and it was the Prophet Joseph (alahissalam) who was appointed in a Prime Minister role that handled the affairs of the drought based on the dream interpretation of the King of Egypt. According to some historians who hold on to the authenticity of Joseph (alahissalam) as a real-life individual, the era in to which he was likely to have lived was during the Hyksos dynasties during the 19th to 16th century BCE in Egypt rather than the Pharaohs of the later periods.

One of the earlier historians of Egypt was Manethos, who wrote the ‘Aegyptiaca’ sometime in the 3rd century BCE in Egypt. It was a historical book written in Greek and is mostly referenced by Josephus the Jewish Historian of the 1st-century CE. According to Josephus, Manethos himself admitted to using mostly myths and legends for most of his work, but this was common amongst ancient historians.

According to the text of Manethos, the second volume of his works spoke about how the Second Intermediate Period had ‘shepherd-kings’, referring to ancient Israelites (Josephus’ Apion 1.82-92). The possibility exists that after Joseph (alahissalam), it sparked another wave of Hyksos peoples in Egypt that were the Israelites. It was from here that Josephus mentions that the Israelites made their way out of Egypt. Some believe they were of the people of Moses (alahissalam) during an event known as Exodus. It may be that Manethos knew the story and attributed it towards the time period and the Israelites that left Egypt were conquered by the Egyptians after the end of the Hyksos period and enslaved.

At the same time Josephus referred in Apion that before the coming of the man attributed to be Moses (alahissalam), the Hyksos people were expelled to the land of Judea and defeated, driving to Syria. It’s possible that the Egyptians who revolted enslaved the Israelites.

However it is apparent that the Hyksos who left may have been the elite, the nobility and royalty among them that were sent in exile after the rulers of Thebes conquered Hyksos Egypt, leaving behind the lower-class and forcing them into enslavement.

We can turn to the alleged papyrus letters (starting with the sixth, found in the British Museum) of the events that are to follow in this book and the one called the ‘Scribe’.

The first is the head of protective books Amenamoni who writes a letter to Penterhor speaking of a 'sorrowful disaster of the drowning in the whirlpool' which is seen as the end of Pharaoh and his hosts in the sea. It speaks of the destruction of the lords, lord of the tribes, king of the east and the west (Pharaoh) and 'the sleep in the waters has made something helpless out of something great.’

Another papyrus is found to be written in the reign of Ramses (as it says so) and mentions a flood and spoke about plagues. It says that 'The Scribe' who is seen to be Moses (alahissalam) fulfilled the purpose to 'destroy the total amount of cereals' and continues to say that 'Sorceries are like their bread' (they saw him as a sorcerer as found in Qur’an 43:39).

We hope that the chance for historians to analyze the documents further would be permitted in the near future.

Despite the analysis to determine the time periods, if we take Pharaoh Rameses II to actually be the Fir’aun of the Qur’an, than we can take the time period of the 13th-century BCE as the start of the life and mission of the mighty Prophet Moses (alahissalam) and from here we can look at the life of Pharaoh. Enyclopaedia Judaica and the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia both report that Moses (alahissalam) was a Prophet from the 13th Century BCE.

According to Israelite history, there were two Pharaoh’s during the time of Moses (alahissalam) before the event of Exodus, the first being Seti I (though Rameses the First is seen as the one who ordered the death of newborn Israelites) and later Rameses II. Others take it to be Rameses II and Merneptah.

The Fir’aun of the Qur’an

The Qur’an does not direct us to who exactly Fir’aun was because it wasn’t necessary to do so. There are many reasons why Fir’aun was mentioned, for one to remind the Children of Israel of Allah’s favours. Another is to remind the Prophet (salallahu alahi wasalam) of what Moses (alahissalam) went through in his life and it becomes a parable for our own lives of tyrants and freedom, of disbelievers and believers and to parallel a future coming of a self-proclaimed divine Messiah who will deceive many known as the Great Deceiver (according to Hadith texts).

It’s important to realize that when the word Fir’aun was used by the Arabs, it referred to a ruler of the Coptic people, just as Caesar was referred to the Byzantine Emperor.

From an archeological point of view, if we take the question of Haman as an architect as the Qur’an explains, the possibility that the Fir’aun being spoken about could be during the reign of Khufu in 26th Century BCE. Khufu’s vizier was Hemon (Shaw pg. 89) or Hemiunu who would be attributed to Haman.

The Qur’an has Fir’aun asking Haman to build him a ‘lofty tower’ using fire and clay. The truth is that the name Haman could be the name of an architect and/or vizier for any Pharaoh (refer to People of the New Kingdom, 1952) as it translates to ‘head of the quarry workers’ just as we find with the vizier Hemon who was the architect of the Great Pyramid. It may also be important to note that Haman could be the Arabic equivalent for the Ancient Egyptian ‘Amana’, who were high priests or architects. It is impossible for any Arab to have known about this in the 7th century CE.

Rameses II if he is the actual Fir’aun, we will be looking at his life for this narrative. Biblical scholars usually hold him to be from the 15th Century BCE. However contemporary historians find him to be from the 13th Century BCE. In 1279 BCE Rameses II took power in his youth from his father Seti I.

However, we can note that the evidence of Merneptah’s destruction of Israel (and possible enslavement) could make him a possible candidate. The Biblical perspective shows that there were two Pharaohs of two periods, the first being the period of the Oppression and the second being of that of Exodus. If Merneptah was responsible for destroying