Pharaoh King Miracle in the Quran

From WikiIslam, the online resource on Islam
Jump to: navigation, search
WikiIslam Archive,
Archives of the first iteration of WikiIslam, prior to acquisition and revamp by Ex-Muslims of North America

The Quran contains a serious historical mistake - it considers "Pharaoh" to be a proper name of the ruler of Egypt in the time of Moses. Some Islamic apologists try to interpret it as a scientific miracle.

The miracle claim

Apologists repeat the same mistake as the Quran and use "Pharaoh" with initial capital letter as if it was a proper name. Notice that the Wikipedia article they quote correctly uses "pharaoh":

For centuries it was thought that all Egyptian rulers were referred to as Pharaohs. Actually the Christian Bible insists that Abraham and Joseph interacted with Pharaohs. However modern discoveries show that this cannot be true. Pharaoh is a title given to rulers in the Egyptian New Kingdom, not before.

Before the New Kingdom the word "Pharaoh" meant "Great House" and it referred to the buildings of the court or palace but not to the ruler.

From the Twelfth Dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula "Great House, May it Live, Prosper, and be in Health", but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person.

Sometime during the era of the New Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, pharaoh became the form of address for a person who was king.

Wikipedia, Pharaoh, 2019

So there were no Pharaohs at the time of Abraham or Joseph. They were just kings. But the Quran didn't do this mistake. The Quran correctly addressed the ruler at the time of Joseph as King, and correctly addressed the ruler at the time of Moses as Pharaoh.

The Egyptian ruler at time of Joseph was a king:

[Quran 12:54] The king said, "Bring him to me, and I will reserve him for myself." And when he spoke to him, he said, "This day you are with us established and secure."

The Egyptian ruler at time of Moses was a Pharaoh:

[Quran 40:26] Pharaoh said, "Let me kill Moses, and let him appeal to his Lord. I fear he may change your religion, or spread disorder in the land."


No mistakes in the Quran.

How could an illiterate man who lived 1400 years ago have known who was Pharaoh and who was not?


Arabic and English

A big difference between Arabic and English is that Arabic doesn't have capital letters. For example the word pharaoh (فرعون, fir'aun) starts on the letter ف which could be both f or F depending on the context.

But Arabic is also similar to English in the way it uses "the" ("al-" in Arabic). You would use it with a title but not with a proper noun. You wouldn't say in English "the Muhammad" just like in Arabic you wouldn't say المحمد (al-Muhammad). But in English you can say "the king" and similarly in Arabic الملك (al-malik).

The Arabic word Firaun occurs 74 times in the Quran and not a single time it occurs in the form الفرعون (al-fir'aun) - "the pharaoh". [1] So either the Quran is constantly talking about unspecific "a pharaoh" (Arabic doesn't use "a") or it is a proper name Pharaoh.

The verses

Apologists used two verses to prove their point. The king:

The king (الملك, al-malik) said, "Bring him to me, and I will reserve him for myself." And when he spoke to him, he said, "This day you are with us established and secure."


Quran 12:54, translated by miracles-of-quran.com

And Pharaoh:

Pharaoh (فرعون) said, "Let me kill Moses, and let him appeal to his Lord. I fear he may change your religion, or spread disorder in the land."


Quran 40:26, translated by miracles-of-quran.com

The pharaoh was already mentioned in previous verses, so even in English we would expect this verse to begin with "The pharaoh said" and not "Pharaoh said".

In this particular verse the capital P doesn't look as bad since it is at the beginning of sentence. Although it is a mistranslation. The verse in Arabic begins with وقال فرعون (literally "And said Pharaoh"), but apologists ignored the "and" at the beginning.

Further evidence

Only one pharaoh

The plural form of pharaoh appears nowhere in the Quran and all instances are about the pharaoh in the time of Moses. There is no indication that the author of the Quran had knowledge of existence of other pharaohs.

Even in the hadiths:

Narrated Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The superiority of `Aisha to other ladies is like the superiority of Tharid (i.e. meat and bread dish) to other meals. Many men reached the level of perfection, but no woman reached such a level except Mary, the daughter of `Imran and Asia, the wife of Pharaoh (وآسية امرأة فرعون)."


Notice the translator writes Pharaoh with capital P. He also uses "the" although ال (al-) is not present. But it is definite because Pharaoh is a proper name.

Pharaoh in the Quran has kingdom

The pharaoh (or Pharaoh as the Quran thinks) is supposedly distinguished from "king" (مَلك, malik). But there is a verse where pharaoh says he has kingdom:

And Pharaoh called out among his people; he said, "O my people, does not the kingdom (مُلك, mulk) of Egypt belong to me, and these rivers flowing beneath me; then do you not see?


Quran 43:51 (Sahih International)

Malik and mulk is like king and kingdom in English.

Name of the pharaoh not mentioned

The word pharaoh is mentioned 73 times, but there is no mention of the name of the pharaoh. That is consistent with the interpretation that the name is Pharaoh.

See also

References