In the Qur’an, God tells the story of the Pharaoh and Haman:
And Fir’aun (Pharaoh) said: “O Hâmân! build Me a tower that I may arrive at the ways, “The ways of the heavens, and I may look upon the Ilâh (God) of Mûsa (Moses) but Verily, I think Him to be a liar.” Thus it was made fair-seeming, In Fir’aun’s (Pharaoh) eyes, the evil of his deeds, and He was hindered from the (Right) path, and the plot of Fir’aun (Pharaoh) led to nothing but loss and destruction (for Him).
Haman has been ordered by the Pharaoh to build a tower. So lets look in the bible, is Haman told to construct something in the bible? Yes, but not by the Pharaoh. In the Book of Esther, Haman is an advisor to Xerxes (Ahaseures) and in Babylon. So there are three discrepancies between the Qur’an and the Bible regarding Haman.
- Haman worked for the Pharaoh in the Qur’an, while Haman worked for Xerces in the Book of Esther.
- Haman was in Egypt in the Qur’an, while Haman was in Babylon in the book of Esther.
- Haman was in the neighborhood of 1,000 years earlier in the Qur’an than in the book of Esther.
Now when people in Europe began studying eastern thought, as well as Islam they discovered this. Almost immediately they began saying that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) took this religion from some priest and mixed up the stories when he was “making” the Qur’an. Their main goal was to say that the Qur’an was made up, or written by man.
Louis(or Ludovico) Maracci a Catholic Priest and confessor to Pope Innocent XI
. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovico_Marracci) wrote:
“Mahumet(Muhammad) has mixed up sacred stories. He took Haman as the adviser of Pharaoh whereas in reality he was an adviser of Xerxes (Ahaseures), King of Persia. He also thought that the Pharaoh ordered construction for him of a lofty tower from the story of the Tower of Babel. It is certain that in the Sacred Scriptures there is no such story of the Pharaoh. Be that as it may, he Muhammadhas related a most incredible story”
Encyclopedia Britannica said in 1891:
“The most ignorant Jew could never have mistaken Haman (the minister of Ahasuerus) for the minister of the Pharaoh”
Those are just a few of the examples of ignorance thinking that it is the truth.
In the late 19th century, the Catholic Church declared the Book of Esther, of being a book of tales and not a historic book. Even the modern Jewish Encyclopedia has stated that this book is just a book of stories, stating that it was more of a book about Romance than did it state historic fact. While not ONE Muslim ever doubts what the Qur’an is, it is the word of God, not inspired to humans, but the actual word of God.
So now we have discussed what the Qur’an says, what the bible says, what the Christians scholars say about the authenticity of the Qur’an, and then what they say about the authenticity of the Book of Esther. Now lets discuss history.
In the 19th and 20th century when the study of Hieroglyphics began to revive the language of the ancient Egyptians; a French Doctor Maurice Bucaille, was studying history and came across this disparity in the Qur’an and the Bible. So he went to Egyptologist to get to the root of the person named “Haman”. What he discovered was at the estimated time of Moses, there was a man who was named ‘Haman’ and he was a worker of the Pharaoh and his duty was “The Chief of the workers in the stone-quarries.” SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah) just as the Qur’an described it. So Dr. Bucaille went to one of the French Egyptologist and told him that the a man in 7th century who claimed to a Messenger of God, said that there was a man named Haman and that he was an architect for the Pharaoh. He was later told that this book was the Qur’an, and the Egyptologist responded:
“Had the Bible or any other literary work, composed during a period when the hieroglyphs could still be deciphered, quoted ‘Haman,’ the presence in the Qur’an of this word might have not drawn special attention. But, it is a fact that the hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten at the time of the Qur’anic Revelation and that no one could not read them until the 19th century AD. Since matters stood like that in ancient times, the existence of the word ‘Haman’ in the Qur’an suggests a special reflection.”
Not just that alone, there was a statue found in Egypt, which is currently in a museum in Australia of an ancient architect from the time of the Pharaohs, with his name sketched into stone, ‘Haman.’
Now we don’t know if this is the same Haman as mentioned in the Qur’an, but the Qur’an has the correct location, the correct name, the correct occupation, and the correct timing, none of which the Bible has.
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