A site I found many years ago in my early years after accepting Islaam that helped me on my travels in refuting the ignorant American theologians that I encountered was Islamic-Awareness.org. I stumbled, while searching through some of the more recently updated articles, upon a refutation of the orientalists, that in my view is one of the best researched articles they have on their site. It is regarding Hamanin the Qur’an. Who was he in relationship to Fir’awn? I will sum up their rather lengthy article, that I hope you all take your time in reading, here insha’allah.
Allah mentions him in 6 places in the Qur’an:
ونمكن لهم في الأرض ونري فرعون وهامان وجنودهما منهم ما كانوا يحذرون
To establish a firm place for them in the land, and to show Pharaoh, Haman, and their hosts, at their hands, the very things against which they were taking precautions. [28:6]
فالتقطه آل فرعون ليكون لهم عدوا وحزنا إن فرعون وهامان وجنودهما كانوا خاطئين
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. [28:8]
وقال فرعون يا أيها الملأ ما علمت لكم من إله غيري فأوقد لي يا هامان على الطين فاجعل لي صرحا لعلي أطلع إلى إله موسى وإني لأظنه من الكاذبين
Pharaoh said: “O Chiefs! no god do I know for you but myself: therefore, O Haman! light me a (kiln to bake bricks) out of clay, and build me a lofty palace, that I may mount up to the god of Moses: but as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!” [28:38]
وقارون وفرعون وهامان ولقد جاءهم موسى بالبينات فاستكبروا في الأرض وما كانوا سابقين
(Remember also) Qarun, Pharaoh, and Haman: there came to them Moses with Clear Signs, but they behaved with insolence on the earth; yet they could not overreach (Us). [29:39]
إلى فرعون وهامان وقارون فقالوا ساحر كذاب
To Pharaoh, Haman, and Qarun; but they called (him)” a sorcerer telling lies!”…
[40:24]
وقال فرعون يا هامان ابن لي صرحا لعلي أبلغ الأسبابPharaoh said: “O Haman! Build me a lofty palace, that I may attain the ways and means- The ways and means of (reaching) the heavens, and that I may mount up to the god of Moses: But as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!” [Qur'an 40:36-37]
The lying orientalist pagans in their deceitful plot to misguide the ignorant Muslims try and use this verse to say that the Prophet Muhammad misquoted and combined biblical stories. I have read this trash claim on many occasion on the web. They claim that the Nabi (alayhis salaam) took Haman from the biblical book of Esther. In it, he is an adviser to the Persian court of King Ahasuerus, not the Pharoanic figure. So the stupid (for lack of a better word) orientalists claim that our Nabi (alayhis salaam) jacked the story up by misquoting.
The sum of the article is:
1) The book of Esther is not historically accurate, as admitted by many theologians of old and of late (including Martin Luther).
2) There are horrid inaccuracies in Esther to attest to its unauthenticity.
3) Dr. Maurice Bucaille, may Allah have mercy upon his soul, said about the name and person Haman:
In the book Reflections on the Qur’an (Réflexions sur le Coran), I have related the result of such a consultation that dates back to a dozen years ago and led me to question a specialist who, in addition, knew well the classical Arabic language. One of the most prominent French Egyptologists, fulfilling these conditions, was kind enough to answer the question.
I showed him the word “Haman” that I had copied exactly like it is written in the Qur’an, and told him that it had been extracted from a sentence of a document dating back to the 7th century AD, the sentence being related to somebody connected with Egyptian history.
He said to me that, in such a case, he would see in this word the transliteration of a hieroglyphic name but, for him, undoubtedly it could not be possible that a written document of the 7th century had contained a hieroglyphic name – unknown until that time – since, in that time, the hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten.
In order to confirm his deduction about the name, he advised me to consult the Dictionary of Personal Names of the New Kingdomby Ranke, where I might find the name written in hieroglyphs, as he had written before me, and the transliteration in German.
I discovered all that had been presumed by the expert, and, moreover, I was stupefied to read the profession of Haman: “The Chief of the workers in the stone-quarries,”exactly what could be deduced from the Qur’an, though the words of the Pharaoh suggest a master of construction.
When I came again to the expert with a photocopy of the page of the Dictionaryconcerning “Haman” and showed him one of the pages of the Qur’an where he could read the name, he was speechless…
Moreover, Ranke had noted, as a reference, a book published in 1906 by the Egyptologist Walter Wreszinski: the latter had mentioned that the name of “Haman” had been engraved on a stela kept at the Hof-Museum of Vienna (Austria). Several years later, when I was able to read the profession written in hieroglyphs on the stela, I observed that the determinative joined to the name had emphasised the importance of the intimate of Pharaoh.
….
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.
In other words, the Qur’an hits the nail right on the head. The pagan orientalist man-worshippers were to weak minded to even research this issue correctly! It should be noted however that the authors of this paper state at the end of their research:
“However, it is unclear whether Haman mentioned in the hieroglyphs is actually theHaman mentioned in the Qur’an. More research would throw some light on this issue.”
Even if that can not be proven in our times due to the lost records, it is very clear that the name Haman was an Egyptian name known to the egyptians. For me, it was an aayah! A true sign of the magnificence of the Qur’anic revelation. That the Qur’an is quoting a dead language that was forbidden by the Christian empire, is remarkable! That Dr. Maurice saw this and asked regarding it is even more remarkable!
READ THE RESEARCH: http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/haman.html
ALLAHU AKBAR! La illaha illa Allah! Allahuma sali ala muhammadin wa ala ali muhammad
“The lying orientalist pagans in their deceitful plot…”
I think you need to tone down some of your rhetoric. There are many fine points to be made, but you automatically assume that people who disagree with you are part of a plot.
Imagine: You have one account of a story, a tradition that has existed for at least hundreds of years without detractors when suddenly an outsider to tribe/race/religion preaches a similiar tradition but with names and places switched around. Regardless of how accurate the secondary tradition turns out to be, it’s only logical that the second would be measured by the first. The same dogmas that fence in Islamic theology and tradition can be found at least in Judaism if not Xtianity.
Before assuming deceit, before writing off doctrines that are intensely complicated (and are undoubtly foreign not only to you but many Xtians and Jews who dogmatically embrace them), you should practice some degree of empathy when approaching higher criticism in comparative religion.