Pharaoh and Haman:
The following article was sent to me by brother Samer Kadoura; may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him.
From: skadoura@lycos.com
(Samer R kadoura)
To: ISLM4EVR1@aol.com
Subj: (No Subject)
Date: 10/24/01 3:54:37 PM Central Daylight Time
Assalam alykum wa rahmat allah:
You can go to http://www.hyahya.org/unwise03.php
and search for either the word haman or pharaoh.
The Speculation About the Name "Haman"
Those who keep themselves occupied by looking for inconsistencies in the Qur'an refer to a man named "Haman" who is mentioned in the Qur'anic verses as one of Pharaoh's men.
In the Torah, the name Haman is not used when the life of the Prophet Moses is quoted. On the other hand, it is mentioned in the Gospel to refer to a helper of the Babylonian king who lived 1,100 years after the Prophet Moses and persecuted the Jews.
Those who claim that the Prophet Muhammad wrote the Qur'an in the light of the Torah and the Gospel also put forth the sophistry that he copied some of the subjects in the Qur'an wrongly.
The ridiculousness of this claim became obvious 200 years ago when the Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered and the name "Haman" was discovered.
Until then it had not been possible to read any of the writings or tablets written in ancient Egyptian. The ancient Egyptian language and hieroglyphs had been present for many thousands of years. However, with the spread of Christianity and its cultural influences during the second and third centuries AD the ancient Egyptians forgot their religion as well as the language, and the use of hieroglyphs came to a gradual stop. The year 394 AD is the last known time when a hieroglyph was used. Afterwards this language was forgotten, leaving nobody who could read and understand it. Until some 200 years ago.
The ancient Egyptian language was deciphered in 1799 with the discovery of a tablet dated to 196 BC called the "Rosetta Stone". The unique nature of this tablet came from the fact that it was written in three different forms of writing; hieroglyphics, demotic (a simplified form of ancient Egyptian hieratic writing) and Greek. The ancient Egyptian dialect was decoded with the help of the Greek version. A Frenchman named Jean-Françoise Champollion completed the deciphering of the whole tablet. In this way, a forgotten language and the history that it contained came back to life. This discovery made it possible to research ancient Egyptian civilization, their beliefs and social life.
It also made it possible to acquire the vital piece of information we are now discussing. The name "Haman" was in fact mentioned in old Egyptian tablets. It was mentioned on a monument which now stands in the Hof Museum in Vienna, and in which the closeness of Haman to the Pharaoh was emphasized. (Walter Wreszinski, Ägyptische Inschriften aus dem K.K. Hof Museum in Wien, 1906, J. C. Hinrichs' sche Buchhandlung)
The dictionary "The People in the New Kingdom" refers to Haman as "the head of the quarry workers". (Hermanne Ranke, Die style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Augustin in Glückstadt, Band I, 1935. Band II, 1952)
This discovery brought to light a truly astonishing fact. Haman was, contrary to what those who opposed the Qur'an claimed, really a man who had lived in Egypt during the Prophet Moses' time and furthermore, just as stated in the Qur'an, he was close to the Pharaoh and dealt with construction of sorts.
As a matter of fact, the Qur'anic verse that conveys how the Pharaoh requested Haman to build a tower is in perfect unison with this archaeological finding:
Pharaoh said, 'Council, I do not know of any other god for you apart from me. Haman, kindle a fire for me over the clay and build me a lofty tower so that perhaps I may be able to climb up to Moses' god! I consider him a blatant liar.' (Surat al-Qasas: 38)
In conclusion, the discovery of the name Haman on ancient Egyptian tablets discredited another claim made by those who strive to find inconsistencies in the Qur'anic verses. Furthermore, the undeniable truth that the Qur'an is revealed by God is once again proven without any doubt as the Qur'an miraculously conveyed historical information that could not have been found and deciphered in the Prophet's time.
Salam
Samer Kadoura
Back to Responses to the so called contradictions in the Noble Quran.