Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 16 (“The Story”)
Today we return (again) to the story of Moses and encounter some notable differences between the Qur’an and the account found in the Hebrew Bible…
Surah 28 – “The story” (Al-Qasas)
We open again with the assertion that the Qur’an is “a clear Book”.
We jump to Egypt and are told about the Pharaoh who persecuted the Children of Israel. The Qur’an describes this rather strangely, saying that “[Pharaoh] made [the people of the land] into factions, oppressing a sector among them”. This “sector” is assumed to be the Israelites. However, things get weirder still. We are told that one of Pharaoh’s ministers is a man called “Haman”. Now, there is a man in the Old Testament by that name, who was indeed a government minister and who also sought the downfall of Israel. However, this man lived in a different land and in a different time period, when the Children of Israel were saved by the intercession of Queen Ester. It should also be noted that the when baby Moses is brought into the royal household, it is Pharaoh’s wife, not his daughter, who is his principal saviour.