Monday, 23 October 2017

The Quranic Story Of Pharaoh,Atheists Objections On It And Our Response

The Quranic Story Of Pharaoh,Atheists Objections On It And Our Response
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The verse of Yunus (10):92 says that Pharaoh's BODY was saved and extracted from the water so that it might be a sign for future generations to the power of God. The Arabic writing in the Noble Verse 10:92 from
the Noble Quran: "This day shall We save thee in thy body, that thou Mayest
be a Sign to those Who come after thee! But verily, many among mankind Are
heedless of Our Signs!"
The verses begin by retelling the Old Testament story of Moses crossing the sea to escape Pharaoh, but then includes "We shall save only your corpse as a sign to all posterity." This is unique to the Quran, as Exodus retells this event without mentioning an eternally preserved body.
Recently, as more Egyptian mummies have been discovered, including potentially the Pharaoh in question, Muslims have speculated that this verse is a actually a prophetic miracle.
The kings of ancient Egypt during the time of Abraham [Genesis 12:10-20], Joseph [Genesis 41] and Moses [e.g., Exodus 2:15] are constantly addressed with the title "Pharaoh" in the Bible. The Qur'an, however, differs from the Bible: the sovereign of Egypt who was a contemporary of Joseph is named "King" (Arabic, malik); whereas the Bible has named him "Pharaoh". As for the king who ruled during the time of Moses, the Qur'an repeatedly calls him "Pharaoh" (Arabic, firʿawn). What do modern linguistic studies and Egyptology reveal about the word "Pharaoh" and its use in ancient Egypt? The famous British Egyptologist Sir Alan Gardiner discusses the term "Pharaoh" and cites the earliest example of its application to the king, during the reign of Amenophis IV (c. 1353 - 1336 BCE) as recorded in the Kahun Papyrus. Regarding the term Pharaoh, Gardiner says:
Gardiner also cites two possible earlier examples under Tuthmosis III (1479 - 1425 BCE) and Tuthmosis IV (1400 - 1390 BCE) (as mentioned in his footnote 10 above), while Hayes has published an ostracon from the joint reign of Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE) and Tuthmosis III that twice refers to the latter simply as "Pharaoh". Therefore, the setting of the Qur'anic story of Moses is from the time when rulers of ancient Egypt were addressed as Pharaohs, i.e., from the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom Period (c. 1539 - 1077 BCE) onwards until the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1076 - 746 BCE). After the Third Intermediate Period, Egypt was ruled by weak 25th and 26th Dynasties and later by the Persians and then the Romans. These periods will not be taken into consideration So, we have narrowed almost c. 3000 years of ancient Egyptian history to a specific timescale, i.e., New Kingdom Period (c. 1539 - 1077 BCE) and the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1076 - 746 BCE) which is c. 790 years, for the setting of the Qur'anic story of Moses.The usage of the world pharaoh for a ruler is also found in the history of egypt between 16th to 14th centuries BC.So the Quranic description is more consistent with historical and archaeological records.
Unfortunately, the realities of ancient Egyptian history make it all but impossible to say for certain which Pharaoh is described in the book of Exodus. It may even have been a Pharaoh whose memory has been completely obliterated by time and forgotten by history.
The difficulty in naming the Pharaoh of the Exodus is that Egyptian history is erratic and notoriously unreliable. Archaeologists note that Egyptian records often overlap, contradict each other’s dates, and leave out major historical events. This is especially true if the events are unflattering to the reigning Pharaoh. Determining the time period when Jewish slaves would have been held in Egypt, then, becomes trickier than simply comparing Egyptian records to non-Egyptian records.
The scholars are in disagreement over the exact identity of the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Some scholars are of the opinion that the Exodus took pace in the 19th dynasty period of Egypt, making Seti I and Rameses II and Mernephtah the Pharaohs of the Israelite oppression and their subsequent Exodus from Egypt. According to others 13th Dynasty pharaoh Dedumose I (Dudimose, Dedumesu, Tutimaos, Tutimaios) was the pharaoh of the Exodus. Most ancient writers considered Ahmose I to be the pharaoh of the Exodus. Other biblical scholars claim that Amenhotep II (1450-1425 B.C.) must be the pharaoh of the biblical exodus.
Some say thst Akhenaten was the pharaoh of the Oppression and his young sonin- law Tutankhamun, the pharaoh of the Exodus.Some people calk Neferhitep I as the pharaoh of exodus,some call him Akhantaten,Seti I and Rameses II and Mernephtah.
Merrill elaborates:
Our identification of Amenhotep II as the pharaoh of the exodus is supported by two other considerations. First, although most of the kings of Dynasty 18 made their principle residence at Thebes, far to the south of the Israelites in the Delta, Amenhotep was at home in Memphis and apparently reigned from there most of the time. This placed him in close proximity to the land of Goshen and made him readily accessible to Moses and Aaron. Second, the best understanding suggests that Amenhotep’s power did not pass to his eldest son, but rather to Thutmose IV, a younger son. This is at least implied in the so-called dream stela found at the base of the Great Sphinx near Memphis. Others, citing 1 Kings 6:1 as evidence, believe that the Exodus took place in 1446 BC. This is due primarily to the statement in 1 Kings that Israel's deliverance from Egypt took place 430 years before “The fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel,” which means 430 years before 966 BC. This would then make Thutmose III and his son Amunhotep II the Pharaohs of that period. Others say that The pharaoh of exodus is merenra 2, the pharao of the exil of moshe is pépi 2 and the pharaoh killer is merenra 1.
In -2142 (in official calendar qho is wrong), and 40 years in -2100 in canaan west semitic people destroyed the cities in canaan. this is the hebrew people/
This period who the archeologist say in -2100 -1900 is 50 years (1473-1423, the yeohshouah conquest).
The Bible tells how the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt and eventually escape under the leadership of Moses. At least one or two pharaohs are involved, the "pharaoh of the oppression" who enslaves the Israelites, and the "pharaoh of the exodus" during whose rule the Israelites escape. The biblical story does not name or give enough information to identify the period in which the events are set. There have thus been many suggestions as to which of Egypt's many rulers was involved.
According to some scholars, the Qur'an mentions that there was only one Pharaoh during the time of Moses, i.e., the Pharaoh who was present during the time of Moses was the same one who died while pursuing the Children of Israel. The Bible on the other hand mentions that Moses saw parts of the reigns of two Pharaohs (Exodus 2:23).
Unlike the Bible, the Qur'an speaks about only one Pharaoh who ruled Egypt before the birth of Moses until the Exodus and his (i.e., Pharaoh's) death. The evidence for this comes from the Qur'an 28:7-9 and Qur'an 26:18-22.
So We sent this inspiration to the mother of Moses: "Suckle (thy child), but when thou hast fears about him, cast him into the river, but fear not nor grieve: for We shall restore him to thee, and We shall make him one of Our messengers." Then the people of Pharaoh picked him up (from the river): (It was intended) that (Moses) should be to them an adversary and a cause of sorrow: for Pharaoh and Haman and (all) their hosts were men of sin. The wife of Pharaoh said: "(Here is) joy of the eye, for me and for thee: slay him not. It may be that he will be use to us, or we may adopt him as a son." And they perceived not (what they were doing)! [Qur'an 28:7-9]
Here God is narrating the event after the birth of Moses and how he was cast in the river only to be picked up by people of the Pharaoh. Part of the dialogue between Moses after his return from Midian and Pharaoh, as cited in the Qur'an 26:18-22, makes it perfectly clear that this Pharaoh may be the same Pharaoh who took custody of Moses in his infancy.
(Pharaoh) said: "Did we not cherish thee as a child among us, and didst thou not stay in our midst many years of thy life? "And thou didst a deed of thine which (thou knowest) thou didst, and thou art an ungrateful (wretch)!" Moses said: "I did it then, when I was in error. "So I fled from you (all) when I feared you; but my Lord has (since) invested me with judgment (and wisdom) and appointed me as one of the messengers. "And this is the favour with which thou dost reproach me,- that thou hast enslaved the Children of Israel!" [Qur'an 26:18-22]
Here Pharaoh reminds Moses of the time that he spent as a child in his household and the event when he killed a man [Qur'an 28:33] that led to his flight to Midian. The answer of Moses to Pharaoh's argument is a clear confirmation that this Pharaoh is the same one in whose palace he was brought up. Furthermore, Moses rejected Pharaoh's claim that he had done him a favour by letting him live in his household. He reminded Pharaoh that the reason why he ended up in Pharaoh's household was because the latter had enslaved the Children of Israel, which included the prohibition of the Children of Israel leaving Egypt and killing of their new born males. In essence, the same Pharaoh who enslaved the Children of Israel was in power when Moses went back to Egypt.
Keeping in mind that Moses was born when Pharaoh was already in power and that the latter died in his pursuit of Moses and the Children of Israel, the length of Pharaoh's reign can be estimated by adding together the following:
The number of years that Pharaoh reigned before Moses was born;
The age of Moses when he left for Midian;
The number of years he stayed in Midian; and
The length of Moses second sojourn in Egypt after returning from Midian.
Several pieces of information can be obtained from the above verses which suggest that Moses stayed in Egypt for a considerable period of time, measured in years. Firstly, the reference to the affliction of years of droughts and shortage of crops [Qur'an 7:131] and then a period of good time. Thus the people of Pharaoh had changing spells of bad and good fortune so that they might receive admonition. Instead they blamed Moses and his people for their calamities and claimed the good times were due to them. Secondly, plagues [Qur'an 7:133] themselves must have extended over a certain period of time. Thirdly, a catastrophe like a flood or swarm of locusts leaves effects, including indirect effects, that last for several months at least.
The atheists say that there is no written or archaeological evidence of existence of Hazrat Asiaa(آسیہ علیہ السلام) mentioned in Quran or the stressful conditions present before exodus described in Quran.They are wrong.First they should exactly find which pharaoh was the pharaoh of exodus and then exactly find the Egyptian history and all of its aspects before refuting Quranic claim.Some people calk Neferhitep I as the pharaoh of exodus. Neferhotep’s dynasty began because his predecessor, Amenemhat III, had no surviving sons and his daughter, Sobekneferu, was childless. This would explain why, in Exodus 2, Pharaoh’s house takes in an apparently orphaned Hebrew child. Sobekneferu could have been the Egyptian princess who drew Moses out of the Nile and named him.
Neferhotep I presided over Egypt during an era of profound chaos, described in the Ipuwer Papyrus: “Plague stalks through the land and blood is everywhere. . . . Nay, but the river is blood . . . gates, columns and walls are consumed with fire . . . the son of the high-born man is no longer to be recognized. . . . The stranger people from outside are come into Egypt. . . . Nay, but corn has perished everywhere.” Few monuments from the period survive.
There is no surviving mummy of Neferhotep. The lack of remains is to be expected if Neferhotep was among those swept away during the crossing of the Red Sea .
Other historical tidbits about the era of Neferhotep I overlap with the biblical and Quranic story of Exodus. These include evidence of a slave town, Kahun, which appears to have been hastily abandoned, as Scripture describes. Staves shaped like snakes have been found, dated to this same time period, echoing the tricks of the Pharaoh’s magicians (Exodus 7 and Quran). Shortly after Neferhotep’s reign, Egypt was overrun by the Hyskos, an unlikely event unless the nation was profoundly weakened.So history proves the prevailing conditions in Egypt at the time of exodus as described by Quran and bible.
Yet more support for the Haggadah may lie in an interesting poem copied onto a papyrus dating to the 13th century BCE (although original is believed to be much older), called the "Admonitions of Impuwer or the Lord of All").
River of blood.
It portrays a devastated Egypt haunted by plagues, droughts, violent uprisings – culminating in the escape of slaves with Egypt's wealth. In short, the Impuwer papyrus seems to be telling the story of Exodus from the Egyptian point of view, from a river of blood to the devastation of the livestock to darkness.
If we consider Ramses ii as the pharaoh of exodus,there isis also some evidence for it. During the time of Ramesses II, the deification of the Pharaoh reached its peak as evidenced in numerous cult statues as well as supporting hieroglyphs and papyri. The hieroglyphs give good information about the him. Let us consider three hieroglyphs from the time of Ramesses II (who had prenomen Usermaatre-setepenre and nomen Ramesses meryamun).
Stela no. 410 of Hildesheim Museum shows two people, one is standing wearing the double crown with the uraeus, a short skirt, a necklace and holds the so-called handkerchief or seal in one hand . He is called: "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Lord of the Two Lands ‘Ramesses-meryamun, the God’".
On stela no. 1079 of Hildesheim Museum a man is depicted wearing a long garment tied at the waist, offering two flowers with his right hand. In front of him is a table laden with various kinds of offerings, and two stands with a vase between them.Opposite him are two statues, each wearing a short kilt, an artificial beard and the crown of Upper Egypt, with uraeus in front. Above these two statues and before them are the words: "Lord of the two Lands ‘Usermaatre-setpenre’ Monthu-in-the-Two-Lands" and "Lord of the diadems ‘Ramesses-meryamun’, the God".
The Arabic word musrifīn is derived from the root sarafa which means "to exceed all bounds, be immoderate, be extravagant...; to waste, squander, dissipate, spend lavishly". In order to promote himself as the living god, Ramesses II built colossal monuments throughout Egypt, which he furnished with numerous large-scale images of himself. Perhaps the best example of his extravagant ways to promote his divinity comes from the Great Temple at Abu Simbel where Ramesses II is depicted as god, and the deity Re-Horakhty is portrayed on a diminutive scale in the centre of the king's four colossal statues . It is here, the cult of the living god was practiced. Thus, Ramesses II appears to fit the Qur'anic description of the Pharaoh who exalted himself and was extravagant in his ways to depict himself as a divinity. The issue of Ramesses II building colossal structures brings us to another important statement made in the Qur'an concerning the Pharaoh - he is called the Pharaoh of the awtād or Lord of the stakes.
The Qur'an .nother very unique and interesting description of the Pharaoh which can be shown to be particularly applicable to Ramesses II. This is the Qur'anic reference to Pharaoh in a couple of verses as dhul-awtād ("of the awtād" or usually translated as "Lord of the stakes"). The relevant verses are:
The commentators of the Qur'an have put forth different views for the meaning of the Qur'anic description of the Pharaoh as dhul-awtād ("of the awtād"), as the word awtād, plural of watad, has different meanings. The opinion which attracted most agreement is that the Pharaoh used the stakes to torture and crucify his opponents, especially those who abandoned him and converted to the religion of Moses.
The meaning which we are concerned with here is the description of the Pharaoh being "of the buildings". The Qur'an's choice of this phrase could not have been more accurate. This is what distinguishes Ramesses II from all other Pharaohs. Ramesses II was involved in more building projects than any other Pharaoh throughout the history of ancient Egypt. Commenting on Ramesses II's incredible obsession with building, Kitchen notes that:
He desired to work not merely on the grand scale - witness the Ramesseum, Luxor, Abu Simbel, and the now vanished splendours of Pi-Ramesse - but on the widest possible front as the years passed.... But certainly in his building works for the gods the entire length of Egypt and Nubia, Ramesses II surpassed not only the Eighteenth Dynasty but every other period in Egyptian history. In that realm, he certainly fulfilled the dynasty's aim for satiety.
It is also worth noting that the phrase "Pharaoh, Lord of the awtād" is mentioned along with Iram which had lofty pillars, most likely cut from rocks, and people of Thamud who built houses in the mountains. This suggests that Pharaoh Ramesses II also did something similar, i.e., built structures out of rocks. Indeed Ramesses II built two temples at Abu Simbel in Nubia which were cut in the living rock of the mountainside . One is called the Great Temple, a huge building with four colossal statues of seated figures of Ramesses II, about 20 meters high, flanking its entrance. The other is the Small Temple dedicated to Hathor and Nefertari, about one hundred meters northeast of the Great Temple of Ramesses II and was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Ramesses II's chief consort, Nefertari. These temples are considered to be Ramesses II greatest building achievements. Since Ramesses II wanted to eternalize himself, he also ordered changes to the methods used by his masons. Unlike the shallow reliefs of previous Pharaohs which could easily be transformed, with their images and words easily erased, Ramesses II had had his carvings deeply engraved in stone, which made them less susceptible to alterations.
Pr-Ramesses, which once had magnificent splendour, now lies in ruins. Most likely, the destruction of this magnificent city is alluded to in the Qur'an 7:137 and God knows best:
And We made a people, considered weak (and of no account), inheritors of lands in both east and west, - lands whereon We sent down Our blessings. The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel , because they had patience and constancy, and We levelled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected (with such pride) [mā kāna yaṣnaʿu firʿawna wa qawhumū wa mā kānū yaʿrishūn]. [Qur'an 7:137]
God says that He levelled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected. It is interesting this verse is tied to the period of weakness of the Children of Israel which they endured with patience and steadfastness; the time when they were under Pharaoh, toiling for him. From the discussion, it is undoubtedly clear that Ramesses II fits the description of the Pharaoh of the awtād.
Although the scientific examination of Ramesses II's mummy is inconclusive regarding the precise nature of his death, he did not, as was previously thought, have a debilitating rheumatic condition that would have physically prevented him from engaging Moses and the Children of Israel in the final stages of his life. In conclusion, the Qur'anic presentation of the Pharaoh of the Exodus is internally consistent and fits well with the extant egyptological data. This is also in line with the earlier studies by Hamidullah and Fatoohi et al. who have arrived at similar conclusions, albeit using less exhaustive and sometimes shaky evidence, that the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt before the birth of Moses until the Exodus and his (i.e., Pharaoh's) death was Ramesses II.
Merneptah or Merenptah was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He was the thirteenth son of Ramesses II and only came to power because all his older brothers, including his full brother Khaemwaset or Khaemwase, had died. By the time he ascended to the throne he was almost sixty years old. How all other 12 brothers died,may be by drowning.
The exact Cause of death of neither of expected pharaohs of Moses is exactly known.So the claim of drowning can not be proven wrong.
Ramses ii is considered the most celebrated and the most powerful of all pharaohs,so honoured that 9 more pharaohs took the title of Ramses after his death and so he may be the pharaoh of exodus.
Let us now recapitulate the time period of the reign of the Pharaoh during the time of Moses. Exclusively relying on data found the Qur'an and its commentaries, we have an account of 48-50 years of reign of the Pharaoh. This gives the minimum length of the reign of the Pharaoh. What is unaccounted for is the number of years that the Pharaoh reigned before Moses was born, the period between the conferment of wisdom and knowledge on Moses and his killing of the Egyptian, and the length of Moses second sojourn in Egypt after returning from Midian. Using the data in hand, let us examine the length of the reign of the Pharaohs in the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Periods. Figures 3(a) and 3(b) give the timeline of the New Kingdom Period in ancient Egypt and the reign of rulers therein, respectively. It is observed that the rulers of Egypt who had reigned for close to 50 years are Tuthmosis III (~54 years, 1479-1425 BCE) and Ramesses II (~66 years, 1279-1213 BCE). In the Third Intermediate Period, the rule of Psusennes I (~45 years, c. 1051-1006 BCE) comes close
we consider the case of Tuthmosis III from the New Kingdom Period, we find that 4-7 years are not enough to account for the Pharaoh's reign before Moses was born, the period between the conferment of wisdom and knowledge on Moses and his killing of the Egyptian, and the length of Moses second sojourn in Egypt after returning from Midian. Furthermore, there are other problems associated with this period too. Tuthmosis III was still a young child when he succeeded to the throne of Egypt after the death of his father Tuthmosis II (1482-1480 BCE). However, Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE) was appointed regent due to the boy's young age. They ruled jointly until 1473 BCE when she declared herself a Pharaoh. She is shown dressed in men's attire and administered affairs of the nation with the full support of important officials. Hatshepsut disappeared in 1458 BCE when Tuthmosis III, wanting to reclaim the throne, led a revolt. After Tuthmosis III became the sole ruler, he had her statues and reliefs mutilated. Thus the actual reign of Tuthmosis III was for only ~33 years.
It must be added that in the Late Period (c. 722-332 BCE) comprising of 25th and 26th Dynasties and later the Persians and then the Romans, there existed no ruler who could match the length of reign of Ramesses II. The longest reign during the Late Period was that of Psamtik I (~54 years, 664-610 BCE). This is a very late and improbable date for the Exodus and the length of reign suffers from similar problems as that with Tuthmosis III (i.e., without considering the issue of coregency with Hatshepsut) discussed earlier. That leaves us only with Ramesses II.
As mentioned earlier, Ramesses II ruled for the longest period of time as compared to any other Pharaoh - a total of ~66 years. To this we can also add Ramesses II's proposed co-regency with this father Seti I which lasted for about 1 to 2 years before the former formally assumed the duties of rulership of Egypt after the latter's death. This would extend the reign of Ramesses II to around 68 years. Kitchen and others prefer not to talk of co-regency but of prince-regency which meant Ramesses II had all the attributes of kingship, including his own harem, except his own regnal years. Whatever the case may be we can account for 48-50 years of his reign from the Qur'an. We are still left with about 18-20 years of Ramesses II's reign before his death, which can be used to account for the Pharaoh's reign before Moses was born, the period between the conferment of wisdom and knowledge on Moses and his killing of the Egyptian, and the length of Moses second sojourn in Egypt after returning from Midian. Thus with the available evidence Ramesses II appears to fit well with the statements mentioned in the Qur'an. In order to further strengthen the case that the Qur'an indeed speaks of Pharaoh Ramesses II, let us look at the supporting evidence from the Qur'an and see if it fits the description of Ramesses II of history.
The Qur'anic statement about rescuing Pharaoh's body would be in total agreement with the fact that the body of Ramesses II has survived in a mummified form. It was discovered in 1881 among a group of royal mummies that had been removed from their original tombs for fear of theft. Priests of the 21st Dynasty had reburied them in a cache at Deir al-Bahari on Luxor's west bank. The mummy of Ramesses II formed one of the cache and its resting place was Tomb KV7 in the Valley of Kings. Nothing whatsoever was known at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an about the mummy of Ramesses II.
However, a recent study using better x-ray imaging and unpublished radiographs has concluded that the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis as reported in the literature is unsupported. The authors prefer a diagnosis of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosi (or DISH) which is corroborated by the archaeological and historical studies about the physical attributes and exploits of Ramesses II.Thus, the possibility cannot be rejected out of hand that Ramesses II was the Pharaoh who perished in the sea while chasing the Children of Israel. However, it must be emphasized that the process of mummification itself convolutes the information of actual cause of death. Therefore, the cause of death of Ramesses II can't be verified from his mummy.
Some muslim brothers say that pharaoh of Moses A.a body is more preserved than other mummies.It is wrong.There are mummies of many pharaoh of egypt which are in better condition like ramses There is no proof for it and we muslims should not say something without proof.Others say that his deadbody is kept in museam but his weight will automatic increase and his body wont spoil and on 15 march scientists leave some of rats on him so that they can eat extra flesh from his body.This is also wrong.And others say that earth does not accept his body and so he is kept in museum.And quran did not say that earth will not accept him but Quran only says that we will save your body.Some muslim brothers say that pharaoh body is safe without any presevation procedure.This is also wrong.So it is possible that pharaoh was drowned and mummified immediately after drowning.This may be the reality. it may mean the mummification process and not some thing else.so if we consider this quranic fact,there is no room for the atheists objections and problem is settled for once and for all.
The atheists say that there is no proof of existence of Moses a.s and herbrews in Egypt before or at the time of exodus.The atheists are thoroughly wrong.
Israelites first appear in the archeological record on the Merneptah Stele from between 1208-3 BCE at the end of the Bronze Age. A reasonably Bible-friendly interpretation is that they were a federation of Habiru tribes of the hill-country around the Jordan River. Presumably, this federation consolidated into the kingdom of Israel, and Judah split from that, during the dark age that followed the Bronze. The Bronze Age term "Habiru" was less specific than the Biblical "Hebrew". The term referred simply to Levantine nomads, of any religion or ethnicity. Mesopotamian, Hittite, Canaanite, and Egyptian sources describe them largely as bandits, mercenaries, and slaves. Certainly, there were some Habiru slaves in ancient Egypt, but native Egyptian kingdoms were not heavily slave-based.
The annual flooding of the Nile produced rich harvests, and when famine hit neighboring lands, starving peoples often made their way to the fruitful soils of Egypt. The archaeological record clearly shows that at least some of these peoples were of Semitic origin, coming from Canaan specifically and the Levant in general.it proves Quran claim according to which Yaqub a.s and his sons came to Egypt during famine to collect foods when they met Joseph a.s.
Starting over 4,000 years ago, Semites began crossing the deserts from Palestine into Egypt. The tomb of the high priest Khnumhotep II of the 20th century BCE even shows a scene of Semitic traders bringing offerings to the dead .
Some of these Semites came to Egypt as traders and immigrants. Others were prisoners of war, and yet others were sold into slavery by their own people. A papyrus mentions a wealthy Egyptian lord whose 77 slaves included 48 of Semitic origin.
In fact, by the late Middle Kingdom era, around 3700 years ago, Canaanites had actually achieved absolute power, in the form of a line of Canaanite pharaohs ruling the Lower Kingdom, coexisting with the Egyptian-ruled Upper Kingdom. (These Canaanite pharaohs included the mysterious "Yaqub," whose existence is attested by 27 scarabs found in Egypt, Canaan and Nubia and a famous one found at Shikmona, by Haifa.) The biblical tradition of the patriarch Jacob settling in Egypt could well derive from this time.
In time, the Canaanite leaders were themselves ousted by the Hyksos, a mysterious group who settled in Egypt some time before 1650 BCE, and who came to rule the Lower Kingdom from the city of Avaris. Controversy remains, but it is increasingly agreed that the Hyksos originated from northern Levant - Lebanon or Syria.
Some scholars believe the Semitic traders shown in the mural on Khnumhotep II's tomb are actually Hyksos.
Egyptian scribes of Ahmose I and Thutmoses III wrote boastfully of campaigns in the Levant, resulting in captured prisoners being enslaved in Egypt. Various descriptions perfectly match scenes in the Passover Haggadah.
The setting described in Exodus could be Egypt's East Delta, where the Nile floods every year. The area has no source of stone, and mud-brick structures repeatedly "melted" back into the mud and silt. Even stone temples have hardly survived here. Physical evidence of slaves working there isn't likely to have survived. But a leather scroll dating to the time of Ramesses II (1303 BCE-1213 BCE) describes a close account of brick-making apparently by enslaved prisoners of the wars in Canaan and Syria, which sounds very much like the biblical account. The scroll describes 40 taskmasters, each with a daily target of 2,000 bricks (see Exodus 5:6).
Other Egyptian papyruses (Anastasi III & IV) discuss using straws in mud bricks, as mentioned in Exodus 5:7: "You must not gather straw to give to the people to make bricks as formerly. Let themsleves go and gather straw for themselves".
The tomb of vizier Rekhmire, ca. 1450 BCE, famously shows foreign slaves “making bricks for the workshop-storeplace of the Temple of Amun at Karnak in Thebes” and for a building ramp. They are labeled "captures brought-off by His Majesty for work at the Temple of Amun". Semites and Nubians are shown fetching and mixing mud and water, striking out bricks from molds, leaving them to dry and measuring their amount, under the watchful eyes of Egyptian overseers, each with a rod. The images bear out descriptions in Ex. 1:11-14; 5:1-21. (“They made their life bitter with hard labor, as they worked with clay mortar and bricks and in very form of slavery in the field” - Exodus 1:14a)
Also, the biblical description of how Hebrew slaves suffered under the lash is borne out by the Egyptian papyrus Bologna 1094, telling how two workers fled their taskmaster “because he beat them”. So it seems the biblical descriptions of Egyptian slavery are accurate.
Because of the muddy conditions of the East Delta, almost no papyri have survived – but those that did, may provide further clues in the search for the lost Israelites.
The papyrus Anastasi VI from around 3200 years ago describes how the Egyptian authorities allowed a group of Semitic nomads from Edom who worshiped Yahweh to pass the border-fortress in the region of Tjeku (Wadi Tumilat) and proceed with their livestock to the lakes of Pithom.
Shortly afterwards, the Israelites enter world history with the Merenptah stele, which bears the first mention of an entity called Israel in Canaan. It is robustly dated at is 1210 BCE, i.e., as of writing, 3226 years ago.
These Yahweh worshippers were in ancient Egypt well after the Exodus is supposed to have happened. Members of the Yahweh cult have existed there earlier.
According to the scribe Manetho, the founder of monotheism was Osarisph, who later adopted name Moses, and led his followers out of Egypt in Akhenaten's reign. Akhenaten was the heretic Pharaoh who abolished polytheism and replaced it with monotheism, worshiping only the sun disc, Aten.In 1987, a team of French archaeologists discovered the tomb of a man named Aper-el or Aperia (his name is spelled both ways in Egyptian inscriptions), commander of the charioteers and vizier to Ahmenotep II and to his son Akhenaten.
The vizier's name ending in -el could well be related to the Hebraic god Elohim; and the ending Aper-Ia could be indicative of Ya, short for Yahweh. This interpretation supports the argument that Hebrews were present in Egypt during the 18th dynasty starting 3600 years ago (1543-1292 BCE).
The famed British Egyptologist Sir Matthew Flinders Petrie holds the reverse view: that Akhenaten was the catalysis for the monotheistic views of the Hebrews, and that the Exodus happened in the 19th dynasty (1292-1189, around 3300 years ago).
The atheists say that there is no written record of exodus. But remember that in Quran,there is description of twelve tribes of children of Israel but there is no mention of the number of Hebrews leaving Egypt.Still the atheists can not say that there is no written record or archaeological evidence of exodus as mass migrations have occurred many many times in human history but there is no written or archaeological evidence of them.So absence of evidence is not lack of evidence nor it is sufficient to refute the description of Quran.
Ex. 12:37 says “600,000 men on foot, beside children” went out from Egypt. That extrapolates to around two million people making the exodus (extrapolated from Numbers 1:46) .
If around 2 million people left Egypt, when the entire population has been estimated at around 3 to 4.5 million, it would have been noticed, and would have resounded in Egyptian records.
Note that Herodotus claims that a million Persians invaded Greece in 480 BCE. The numbers were undoubtedly exaggerated, as in most ancient records. But nobody claims the invasion of Greece never happened.
That said, as the Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen points out, the Hebrew word for thousand, eleph, can mean different things depending upon context. It can even denote a group/clan or a leader/chief. Elsewhere in the bible, "eleph" could not possibly mean "a thousand”. For example: 1 Kings 20:30 mentions a wall falling in Aphek that killed 27,000 men. If we translate eleph as leader, the text more sensibly says that 27 officers were killed by the falling wall. By that logic, some scholars propose that the Exodus actually consisted of about 20,000 people.
The absence of evidence of a sojourn in the wilderness proves nothing. A Semitic group in flight wouldn't have left direct evidence: They would not have built cities, built monuments or done anything but leave footprints in the desert sand.
Yet more support for the Haggadah may lie in an interesting poem copied onto a papyrus dating to the 13th century BCE (although original is believed to be much older), called the "Admonitions of Impuwer or the Lord of All").
River of blood.
It portrays a devastated Egypt haunted by plagues, droughts, violent uprisings – culminating in the escape of slaves with Egypt's wealth. In short, the Impuwer papyrus seems to be telling the story of Exodus from the Egyptian point of view, from a river of blood to the devastation of the livestock to darkness.
Also, the Egyptians were not above altering historical records when the truth proved to be embarrassing or went against their political interests. It was not the praxis of the pharaohs to advertise their failures on temple walls for all to see. When Thutmose III came to power, he tried to obliterate the memory of his predecessor, Hatshepsut. Her inscriptions were erased, her obelisks surrounded by a wall, and her monuments were forgotten. Her name does not appear in later annals.
Moreover, records of administration in the east Delta seem entirely gone.
Generally, the biblical writers interpreted actual history, rather than invent it. The ancients knew that propaganda based on real events was more effective than fairy tales. A chronicler might record that King A conquered a city and King B was defeated. A royal scribe might claim that King B offended a God and therefore was punished by the God, who allowed King A to seize his city. To the ancients, both versions would be equally true.
However many Egyptologists or archaeologists dance on the head of a pin, each will have his own perspective on the Exodus story. None will have any evidence beyond contextual evidence to support their theories.
The atheists say that the Exodus could be a distant Semitic memory of the expulsion of Hyksos, or small-scale exoduses by different tribes and groups of Semitic origin during various periods. They are wrong again.There is some archaeological evidence for it as we have stated above and there is evidence that jews were present in egypt at the time of pharaohs.
The atheists say that there is no record or proof of exodus.They are wrong.We now have from Egyptian records all the three elements necessary for the Exodus. A very large mudbrick project built by slaves, a period of turmoil and chaos, like that of the 10 plagues (like the slaying of the firstborn, pharaoh had only a dead son) when the slaves could escape, and thirdly, a basis for the Mishkan, which the Israelites needed in the arid desert, where they had no materials to create such a luxurious building.
According to others,The date of the Exodus at about 1330 BCE also fits in well with the fall of the walls of Jericho, which its British excavator Kathleen Kenyon placed during the fourteenth century BCE.
Some atheists say that if exodus and pharaoh drowning occurred,then why there is no written record of it.Prof. Bob Brier a very well-known Egyptologist specializing in paleopathology,
To the question of Egyptian or other reports about the destruction of the Egyptian army, he repeats throughout the course that Egyptian records NEVER recorded defeats. Two other observations re: the topic:
(1) Timekeeping is notoriously slippery. The post-Roman West has had its own gyrations (e.g., the Gregorian calendar), and that was with a single ordinal index that became our current AD (CE) annual system. Not all cultures have followed or do follow a 365-day solar year, and when years are marked by the reign of a particular king (and reset every time there’s a new one), things can get chaotic. Ancient Egypt, for example, started with a purely lunar calendar, and then transitioned to a 360-day calendar of three seasons, which still eventually got way out of synch. During some of the “Intermediate Periods” kings in one part of Egypt actually marked their reign by the years of the king in the other part. Then, of course, there are periods of historical revisionism (like the obliteration of the records of the reigns of Akhenaten, Tutankamen and Ay), and general loss of records during periods of unrest (the “Intermediate Periods”). The point here is to be historically prudent with the evidence (one might say “humble before the text”) in calculating dates.
Since there is scholarly debate over the exact time of the Exodus, this means that Muslims cannot be certain that the Pharaoh whose body was discovered in 1898 was actually the same one who confronted Moses and no full and exact details about the cause of death of all expected pharaohs of Moses A.s are known and so without knowledge of the cause of their death,the Quranic description of the drowning of the pharaoh can not be denied.However, it must be emphasized that the process of mummification itself convolutes the information of actual cause of death.
The atheists and non Muslims say that they are not entirely convinced. Egyptian mummification is a well known phenomena, thoroughly described by Herodotus, and potentially known to the Prophet and his contemporaries. Indeed, the term mummy is actually the english version of the arabic word مومياء referring to an embalmed corpse. The atheists are dumb.The word momiya is itself derived from Persian word mumia and mumia was a a type of resinous bitumen found in Western Asia and used curatively" in traditional Islamic medicine, which was translated as pissasphaltus (from "pitch" and "asphalt") in ancient Greek medicine. So Egyptians used mumiya or bitumen to mummify their dead but never used the term mummy or mummification.So in ancient days,this was used for bitumen and we have no record that any one in the world or the egypt at the time of revelation of Quran knew about the mummified or saved bodies of pharaohs nor the Holy Prophet s.a.w had met an Egyptians before the revelation of these verses of Quran.The Surah Yunus which mentions about the saved body of Pharaoh is a Meccan Surah while the first Egyptian whome Prophet Muhammad s.a.w met was Hazrat Maria Qibtia R.a sent by the Roman governor of egypt to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w in the last years of his life when this surah had already been revealed and even then there is no proof that Egyptians at the time of Holy Prophet Muhammad s.a.w were aware of the saved mummified body of pharaoh.It is Quran miracle that Quran disclosed a thing about pharaohs which were hidden and even even unknown to Egyptians themselves.
The body of Pharaoh was delivered from the sea that day and protected from decomposition, but that does not necessarily mean that it will be preserved until the Day of Resurrection. If it is proven by the archaeologists and historians that the body of Pharaoh is still preserved today, and it is what is displayed in some museums, it is not permissible to claim that this preservation is a miracle from Allaah for all people, rather it is just historical confirmation that is in accordance with what is in the Qur’aan, and that is the miracle.
But there are some questions which atheists should must answer.
1) Do the Egyptians do not rub sea salt to the body to be mummified if it is not drowned in sea? So use of salt to mummify is not the evidence that the body is not drowned.
2) Does the Quran say that body will remain in Red sea forever to be noticed by people? NO, a body can be taken to any place by the people.
3) Did the scientists do any research on whether the salt found in the body was of Red Sea or not? NO they did not do it because they are sadists to do anything in line with Quran.
4) Did the scientists do any research on whether the salt found was exactly the same salt which is found in every other body? NO they didn't do it either.
5) Did the scientists do any research on the body to find out the evidence on the body which is usually found on drowned bodies?. No.
French scientist Dr. Maurice Bucaille (pronounced as boukay) embraced Islam because of this specific research on Pharaoh's body in the Bible and the Quran.According to him,Ramses ii was the pharaoh of Moses A.s and his body was recovered from water after drowning and then mummified.His mummy is today in Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
The Professor Maurice Bucaille ouldn’t believe his own ears and started to wonder, How can a book existed 1400 years ago speak about the mummy that was only found 100 years ago, in 1898!! How can that be possible while the ancient Egyptian heritage was discovered only a few decades ago and no one knew about it before!!
In the preface of his book, Maurice Bucaille said,” These scientific areas which Qu’ran established to the exclusion of other Scriptures filled me with deep surprise early on, since it never struck my mind to see such a large amount of scientific issues in such a variable and accurate way that they are a mirror image of what has recently been discovered in a book which has existed for more than 13 centuries!!
He also said, ”First, I studied the Holy Qu’ran in a subjective and unbiased way, in an attempt to find by myself that the Qu’ran texts and the givens of the modern science match and do not conflict. Before this study, I earlier knew, through the translated versions of the Qu’ran, that the Qu’ran stated so many natural phenomena. Thanks to the in -depth study of the Arabic text , I managed to gather a list of scientific signs in the Qu’ran, after which I realized that the Qu’ran contains no refutable ayahs, nor did I see scientific ayahs in the Qu’ran which contradict with the recently discovered facts. In the same subjective and unbiased way of research, I scrutinized the Old Testament and Holy Scriptures. Concerning the Old Testament, I needed not go further after I read the Exodus and found no harmony between its texts and the decided scientific givens in our age. Concerning the Holy Scriptures, one can easily read a text in Matthew Gospel which is in stark contrast with that in Luca, and that the latter presents us with matters which does not absolutely go with the modern science as to Man’s life on earth.”
Dr. Maurice Bucaille also said, “Anyone who reads the Qu’ran for the first time sees a book which abounds with accurate and easy –to- understand scientific subjects. While one fails to find any contradiction or errors in the Qu’ran, the current Torah abounds with fatal scientist errors. This prompts us to say that if the author of this Qu’ran was a human, then how did he write about facts which never belonged to his age?!”
His book, The Bible, The Qu’ran and Science, The Holy Scriptures Examined In The Light Of Modern Knowledge, was such a marvelous piece of writing that, in the year 1988, the French Academy awarded him its prize in history.

References:

https://www.google.com.pk/…/www.haaretz.com/amp/jewish/arch…
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/…/Extern…/mosespharaoh.html
www.gotquestions.org - Bible Questions Answered
https://www.google.com.pk/…/…/amp/Pharaoh-of-the-Exodus.html
http://m.jpost.com/…/Who-was-the-pharaoh-of-the-Exodus-3958…
Setnakhte (c. 1189–1186 BC): Igor P. Lipovsky in his book Early Israelites: Two Peoples, One History: Rediscovery of the Origins of Biblical Israel makes a case for him to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. ISBN 0-615-59333-X
https://islamqa.info/en/72516
http://rupeenews.com/…/maurice-bucaille-reversion-to-islam…/
ISLAM THE RIGHT PATH at 02:46
http://islamtherightreligion.blogspot.com/…/dead-body-of-fi…
https://www.pakistan.web.pk/…/what-is-the-height-of-dead-b…/
https://mobile.facebook.com/JesusDaily/posts/10152200956577355?_rdc=1&_rdr&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.pk%2Fsearch
Aziz Gilani,https://www.quora.com/When-was-the-Pharaohs-body-found-and-…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLINW1pldvs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zs6z6E_Oik
Dr. Maurice Bucaille (Why I'm a Muslim?)
www.youtube.com/results…
www.google.com/…
www.youtube.com/results…
www.google.com/…
http://www.answering-christianity.com/quran/ma_drowned.htm
Moore, Megan Bishop; Kelle, Brad E. (2011). Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8028-6260-0.

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اگر ممکن ہے تو اپنا تبصرہ تحریر کریں

اہم اطلاع :- غیر متعلق,غیر اخلاقی اور ذاتیات پر مبنی تبصرہ سے پرہیز کیجئے, مصنف ایسا تبصرہ حذف کرنے کا حق رکھتا ہے نیز مصنف کا مبصر کی رائے سے متفق ہونا ضروری نہیں۔

اگر آپ کے کمپوٹر میں اردو کی بورڈ انسٹال نہیں ہے تو اردو میں تبصرہ کرنے کے لیے ذیل کے اردو ایڈیٹر میں تبصرہ لکھ کر اسے تبصروں کے خانے میں کاپی پیسٹ کرکے شائع کردیں۔