Page 336 - General Knowledge from the Qur'an

334 GENERAL KNOWLEDGE FROM THE QUR'AN

Musa and Yusuf. While addressing the Egyptian ruler at the time of
Yusuf, the work "master" (the King) is used in the Qur'an:
"The King (master) said, 'Bring him (Yusuf) to me straight away!
So I may draw him very close to me.' When he had spoken with
him, he declared, 'Today you are trusted, established in our
sight.'„ (Surah Yusuf, 54)
In contrast, the ruler at Musa's time is referred to as the "Pharaoh":
We gave Musa nine Clear Signs. Ask the tribe of Israel about
when he came to them and Pharaoh said to him, 'Musa, I think
you are bewitched.' (Surat al-Isra', 101)
Historical records available today show us the reason for the differ-
ent nomenclature of these rulers. The word "pharaoh" was originally
the name given to the royal palace in ancient Egypt. The rulers of the
old dynasty did not use the title. The use of the word pharaoh as the
title of the ruler did not start until the "New Kingdom" era of Egyptian
history. This period started with the eighteenth dynasty (1539-1292
BC), and by the twentieth dynasty (945-730 BC) the word "pharaoh"
was adopted as title of respect.
Therefore the miraculous nature of the Qur'an is manifested here
once again: Yusuf lived at the time of the Old Kingdom, and hence the
word "master" was used for the Egyptian ruler rather than "pharaoh".
On the contrary, since Musa lived at the time of the New Kingdom, the
ruler of Egypt is addressed as "pharaoh".
There is no doubt that one has to have a knowledge of the history of
Egypt in order to make such a distinction. However, the history of An-
cient Egypt was completely forgotten by the 4th century, as hiero-
glyphics could no longer be understood, and was not rediscovered
until the nineteenth century. Therefore, there was no in-depth knowl-
edge of Egyptian history available when the Qur'an was revealed. This
fact is yet another one of countless pieces of evidence proving that the
Qur'an is the word of Allah.

THE QUR'AN IS THE WORD OF ALLAH
All that we have seen so far shows us one clear fact: the Qur'an is
such a book that all the news related in it has proved to be true. Facts