Reason #34: The King during Prophet Joseph’s time is a historical proof for the Quran?

WhyIChoseIslam2 Comments

When we think of the word “pharaoh“, we think of the rulers of Ancient Egypt. We think of their claim to being gods, being mummified, and then being buried in the pyramids.

However, many of us may not know that historically the term “pharaoh” was not always used for the Ancient Egyptian civilization. It was actually used for the rulers starting at the New Kingdom (see timeline below from Ancient History Encyclopedia). Before that, the word simply meant “royal palace” and NOT the title for the ruler.

According to history, Prophet Joseph (عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ) is said to have lived before the New Kingdom, likely during the Middle Kingdom or Second Intermediate, when the Hyksos ruled Egypt. Prophet Moses (عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ), on the other hand, is said to have lived during the New Kingdom.

So where are we going with this? Well, in the Bible, it says:

“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.” [Genesis 41:14, English Standard Version]

In the story of Moses, it says:

“When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.” [Exodus 2:15 ESV]

So essentially, it mentions “pharaoh” for both time periods, even though historically, rulers were not called “pharaohs” during the time of Joseph.

However, in the Qur’an, there is a clear distinction. In the story of Joseph, it says:

“And [subsequently] the King said, ‘Indeed, I have seen [in a dream] seven fat cows being eaten by seven [that were] lean, and seven green spikes [of grain] and others [that were] dry. O eminent ones, explain to me my vision, if you should interpret visions.'” [Qur’an 12:43]

In the story of Moses, it says:

“And Moses said, ‘“‘O Pharaoh, I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds,” [Qur’an 7:104]

Thus, in the Qur’an, there is an accurate use of the two words “King” and “Pharaoh”. That then leads to the next question – where did the Qur’an get this from? The claim that it stole from the bible is clearly disproven here. As well, during Prophet Muhammad’s (ﷺ) time, there was no access to these historical information in the lands of Arabia, aside from the bibles and torahs present. And if he was to copy from the bible, why didn’t he copy the inaccuracies as well?

  1. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/12835/timeline-of-ancient-egypt/

Reason #33: Hundreds of thousands of memorizers of the Quran is a proof for Islam?

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You read that right! There may be hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have memorized the entire Qur’an, cover to cover. That’s over 77,000 words or over 6,200 Ayahs/verses!

And yes, hundreds of thousands is not a stretch. In fact, it is suggested that there are over 1 million who have memorized the Qur’an! By one statistic, in 2014 the largest Pakistan Islamic studies board alone produced over 60,000 huffadh (memorizers) in one year!1 If you go to any masjid in the U.S. for one of the 5 daily prayers, even if there’s just 20 people, chances are one of them is a hafidh. 

Now what do these statistics signify? Well, a lot! First, we can’t say that even 1% percent of that number goes to any other book, including the bible. Even in higher levels of priesthood, memorizers are extremely rare. Imagine sadly that all the Qur’ans in the world suddenly disappeared. Within a day, countless Qur’ans, without a struggle, can accurately be reproduced thanks to its memorizers! We can’t say that about any other religious book of such caliber!

Second, the majority of the memorizers are NOT natives in Arabic! They learned to read the language at a very young age. Whether to become memorizers or just learn the religion, it is very common for a Muslim household to teach their children starting at the age of 4 to 5 how to read the Qur’an.

Third, it further proves the authenticity of the Qur’an in that what is recited today is truly word-for-word what was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) over 1,400 years ago. That’s no small feat because we know just how hard it is to have a record of writings from a few hundred years ago. We may have Qur’ans that date back around the time of the companions of Prophet Muhammad, but also what non-historians may not realize is that throughout history, memorization and passing down information verbally was one of the most common ways traditions have been preserved. After all, majority of the world throughout time did not know how to read or write.

God says in the Qur’an,

“And We have certainly made the Quran easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?”

[Qur’an 54:40]

The fact that hundreds of thousands of people all recite the Qur’an in the SAME EXACT ORDER, Muslims say, cannot be anything short of a miracle. Imagine this – the 40-year old imam of a masjid, who is fluent in Arabic, is reciting a long Surah from the Qur’an and forgot an Ayah. A 10-year old then corrected him! Muslims have all encountered similar incidences at least once in their lives.

  1. http://www.taghribnews.com/en/news/163644/pakistan-tops-world-with-qur-an-huffaz