[Koran Bible Torah Pharaoh drowned Red Sea Rameses II Tutankhamen, Seti I Islam and Science  Maurice Bucaille Egypt Mummy Children of Israel Moses Exodus]

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This essay seeks to address the attempt of Mr. Kamil Arif, a self-professed Islamist atheist of the cyber-world, who appears to have found a miracle in Koran in regard to the story of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. In discussions with a friend of his, he claims to have found stunning revelations in Koran which says Pharaoh was saved in body although Bible and Torah says, 'Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea while chasing Moses and his companions'. The points he intended to put across is that Bible and Torah were incorrect while the Koran is correct.  Relevant verses he cited are as follows [Ref]:

Bible: "And the waters returned, and covered the Chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them." (Exodus, 14:28)

Amazingly, when this was all the world knew about the drowning of Pharaoh, the Quran produced this astounding revelation: "We shall save you in your body this day, so that you may become a sign to all posterity." (Koran: 10:92)

Mr. Arif sought to relate the Koranic claim of saving Pharaoh's body in the discoveries of mummies of ancient Kings (Pharaohs) in Egypt in early 20th century. However, he conveniently ignored the other verses in Koran which give a very conflicting picture of the fate of Pharaoh as cited below:

 * And remember We divided the sea for you and saved you and drowned Pharaoh's people within your very sight. [Q 2:50]
 * (Deeds) after the manner of the people of Pharaoh and those before them": They treated as false the Signs of their Lord: so We destroyed them for their crimes, and We drowned the people of Pharaoh: for they were all oppressors and wrong-doers. [Q 8.54]
 *  And We brought the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh with his hosts pursued them in rebellion and transgression, till, when the (fate of) drowning overtook him, he exclaimed: I believe that there is no Allah save Him in Whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of those who surrender (unto Him).  What! Now! When hitherto thou hast rebelled and been of the wrong-doers? But this day We save thee in thy body that thou mayst be a portent for those after thee... [Q 10:90]

The story of Pharaoh goes in the Islamic discourse goes like this: 'When Moses took the was fled with the children of Israel, Pharaoh with his people pursued him. Upon arrival at the read sea, Allah parted the sea. Moses and his people crossed it and when Pharaoh and his people were in the middle of the parted sea, Allah let the water flow. Pharaoh with his people were drowned.'

Now let us have look at the confusing and contradictory picture the Quran draws of Pharaoh's fate:

 - Q 2:50 says, Pharaoh and his people, who were in pursuance of fleeing Moses, were drowned in Red sea. There is no indication of difference in the fate of any of them.

 - Q 8.54 again affirms, Pharaoh and his people, who were in pursuance of Moses, were all destroyed by drowning for their wrong-doings and disbelief.

 - And finally Q 10:90-92 says Pharaoh had submitted to Islam while getting drowned and yet,  was not forgiven by Allah. But instead, he was saved in his body to serve as a sign (of evil?) for the posterity.

This account gives a glimpse of an utterly confused author who may have authored this Holy BOOK of TRUTH. However, confronted with these contradictions in the Koran,  this claimed-to-be atheist, like a typical Islamic apologist, quickly changed his mind to say that Koran is no more a book of  astounding revelation as compared to Bible and insists that Koran, Bible and the Torah describe a similarly correct account of Pharaoh (Kamil Arif: Astonishingly, all three books narrates the story of Moses having contents with startling resemblance). And he is impressed by the miracle of these alleged books of revelation because of the fact that some Egyptian king named Pharaoh ever existed (Kamil: Is there any scientific proof exists that shows Moses or any other component mentioned in the stories present in Torah, Bible, Quran does exists? At least I know one, a very week component, existence of Pharaohs!).

Here is a clear example of dishonesty, hypocrisy and intellectual bankruptcy, which a typical religious apologist will normally show. This gentleman initially found an astoundingly different account of Pharaoh in Koran as compared to Bible and the Torah (which is indeed true) but the next moment he would change his mind that in fact all these holy BOOKs give a similar account of Pharaoh. The fact that the Koran itself gives a very contradictory picture of Pharaoh's fate will not get into his mind. No doubt Koran is a book of all the science on earth as uncovered by Maurice Bucaille and this Saudi King's family doctor's devout disciples from the Muslim community continue to unravel more.

Mr. Arif appears to believe that it was so difficult for Moses, Jesus and Muhammad to know that Egyptian king Pharaoh ever existed. Hence, the simple mention of Pharaoh in the Torah, Bible and the Koran itself is a piece of scientific evidence of the supernatural nature of the alleged books of divine revelations to him. This account of this self-proclaimed atheist not only raises a load of questions about his atheistic position about religions and about Islam in particular, but also clearly demonstrates his utter ignorance about the historical background of the religious scriptures and history of Middle East and Egypt as I will expound it in the following paragraphs.

Who was Pharaoh?

More than one billion Muslims (also probably all believing Jews & Christians) believe that Pharaoh was the name of the Egyptian king during the time of Moses and he died drowned in the Red Sea when he and his men were chasing Moses and his men (Children of Israel) who were fleeing Egypt. But they would not know that there never existed an individual king by the name of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was actually the title of ancient Egyptian rulers like the kings or emperors in Western context or the Rajah or Samraat in Indian contexts. Hence,

Pharaoh  ≈  King/Emperor  ≈  Rajah/Samraat

Thus, there were many Pharaohs in Egypt from 3200 BCE until Alexander the great conquered Egyptian territory in 332 BCE. Although some of them may have been unkind rulers as were other rulers around the world of that time, a few of them were actually kind, generous, intelligent and concerned about the welfare of the people. The most kind and generous Pharaoh was Ahmis I (died in 1610 BCE). He was very concerned for his subjects and ensuring better comfort, happiness and welfare of his people was his only motto. He was so popular with his people that people used to worship him for almost 1000 years after his death until Persians conquered Egypt in 525 BCE. Another great Pharaoh was Rameses II (or Rameses the Great, 1317-1251 BCE) and if Moses (allegedly born in 1359 BCE) ever had lived on earth, Rameses II is the evil Pharaoh drowned in the red sea as described in Torah/Bible. And the truth of the matter is Rameses-II was a very intelligent, strongly secular and scientific-minded and had great interest in arts and architecture. He was in no way a cruel king as described in the story of EXODUS. If indeed it was Pharaoh Rameses II in the story of EXODUS, then this story has to be one of the greatest character-assassination efforts in human history. Character-killing incidences are no rarity in human history anyway.

Name Pharaoh in books of revelations a miracle? Simply the occurrence of the word Pharaoh in the Koran, Bible and the Torah appears to be miraculous and a scientific proof (weak?) of the divine nature of these books as implied by Mr. Kamil Arif. But does the occurrence of the word Pharaoh in the Torah, Bible and the Koran qualify to be any kind of miracle?

Absolutely not! Egyptian rulers/kings used to accord the Pharaoh title from ~3200 to 332 BCE and scores of Pharaohs ruled Egypt during that period. Given that the story of the EXODUS was revealed either by an alleged God or composed by some jealous and mischievous poet(s) as folklores, during about the time of alleged Moses (1300-1200 BCE), it is very likely that the author would use the term Pharaoh to describe the Egyptian king of that time. Hence, it  is a desperate but naive and futile efforts to discover any miracle in the occurrence of the word 'Pharaoh' in the Torah, Bible and the Koran. The revealed story of these alleged divine books becomes more baseless as they fail to specify which Pharaoh was involved in animosity with Moses.

The mummy story. The Egyptians used to mummify their dead bodies if they could afford, which, they thought, would ensure peace to their departed soul in afterlife. And obviously, all the dead bodies of the Kings (Pharaohs) were mummified. Mummification of dead bodies continued for about 3000 years until the 4^th century AD when many Egyptians had become Christians and no longer believed that mummification was necessary for the salvation of the soul after death. Eventually, the Egyptians gave up the art and science of making mummies.

Since Prophet Muhammad was born just about two hundreds years after the tradition of mummification ceased to continue and given the proximity of the Arab land with Egypt, it was only likely that Prophet Muhammad used to hear folklore stories and legends about mummification, especially of Egyptian Pharaohs (Kings). Although the prophet failed to properly describe mummification of Pharaoh's bodies, yet indeed Pharaoh Rameses II was mummified and preserved - he was never drowned in the Red Sea as described in Exodus. When everyone accompanying Pharaoh was perished by Allah in the red sea, who brought the dead body of Pharaoh from there to Egypt and did the mummification? It was more likely that Moses and his followers would have brought Pharaoh's dead body to Israel for preservation as wished by the Allah. But there is no mummy found in Israel. If at all that happened, the mummy of the Pharaoh of Abrahamic scriptures must be buried underneath somewhere in Israel and is not at all acting as the warning or signs of evil, for which Allah wished to save Pharaoh in his body [Q 10:90-92]. Allah's wish failed to materialize.

In fact, Ramses II is one of the three of the most famous Egyptians mummies, namely Tutankhamen, Seti I and Rameses II (Ramses the Great). Although great Pharaoh Ramses II may have been severely character-assassinated by the fables of the Torah, Bible and the Koran, still the civilized people of the civilized world paid great respect to the mummified body of Ramses II, instead of it serving as a sign of evil. Here goes the story:

Rameses the Great ruled over Egypt from 1279-1212 BC, an incredible 67 years. Rameses was legendary in many respects. At a time when most people lived only a few decades, Rameses was about 90 years old when he died. He was a tall man about six feet in height, when the average Egyptian was a little over five feet tall. Rameses had many wives in his lifetime and is believed to have fathered over 100 children. In 1974, Egyptologists at the Cairo Museum noticed that the mummy's condition was getting worse rapidly . They decided to fly Rameses II to Paris so that a team of experts could give the mummy a medical examination. Did you know that even a mummy needs a passport to travel? Ramses II was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation as "King (deceased)."

Once in Paris, Ramses was diagnosed and treated for a with a fungal infection. During the examination, scientific analysis revealed battle wounds and old fractures, as well as the arthritis and poor circulation pharaoh's body at the time of his death. In addition, experts were able to determine some of the flowers and herbs that were used for the embalming, including lots of camomile oil.

Thus the story of Pharaoh, the discovery of mummies of Egyptian kings or whatsoever – none of them gives any credibility to the fables or legends described in the Torah, Bible and the Koran. A proper historical, scientific and rational investigation only leads to discovery of the baselessness or futility of those stories.