The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 90
CH. 20 ṬĀHĀ PT. 16 God is originally Egyptian, their rulers. But the actual fact is that having been first conceived and 5 (Moses) is a Hebrew name and adopted by an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh's daughter, who very king, named Ikhnaten (or probably gave him that name, must Akhenaten). Moses himself have certainly been influenced to give being an Egyptian borrowed it the child a Hebrew name, as having from the Egyptians and preached taken him out of water she thought it among the Israelites. that he belonged to the Israelite 3. That, being an Egyptian, Moses people. It is also possible that the popularized the Egyptian custom name might have been suggested by of circumcision as a religious Moses' mother or sister. rite among the Israelites. 4. That like the teaching of the Egyptian king, Akhenaten, there is no mention of the life after death in the teachings of Moses which also shows that he was an Egyptian. 5. That the Egyptians had a very strong dislike for swine and its flesh and that the Israelites developed this dislike as a result of the teaching of Moses. 6. That because Moses was an Egyptian he could not properly express himself in Hebrew. 1. Firstly, all these arguments in fact possess no basis. As stated above and also in 2:54, Moses is certainly a Hebrew word, having derivation both in Hebrew and Arabic. But even if we admit that the name Moses was of Egyptian origin, it does not follow that the man Moses also was Egyptian. As the Israelites were a subject race in Egypt, living under the rule of the Pharaohs, it seems quite plausible that they should have adopted Egyptian names. The members of a subject race generally feel a particular delight in adopting the names and imitating the customs, modes of living and dress etc. , of an 2. The second argument that the idea of the Oneness of God was originally Egyptian, having been first conceived and adopted by Akhenaten, an ancient Egyptian king, and preached by him among the Israelites, is equally wrong. In the first place it is manifestly unreasonable to suppose that a certain concept is the monopoly of one people. Different peoples may independently form similar ideas without having borrowed them from one another. Secondly, even supposing that the idea of God's Unity is of Egyptian origin, the inference cannot be justified that Moses was an Egyptian. If an American or a German can borrow an idea from an Englishman and vice versa why cannot an Israelite borrow an idea from an Egyptian? The truth is that the idea of God's Oneness was neither conceived by Egyptians nor by Syrians or any other people. It has its origin in Divine revelation. 2004 3. The contention that circumcision was an old Egyptian practice and Moses being an Egyptian borrowed it from his people and popularized it among the Israelites also possesses no substance. Supposing that the practice of circumcision was Egyptian, how