The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 92
CH. 20 ṬĀHĀ PT. 16 إِذْ رَا نَارًا فَقَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ امْكُثُوا إِنّى When he saw a fire, and he. 11 said to his family, 'Tarry ye, I انَسْتُ نَارً ا لَّعَلَّى اتِيْكُمْ مِنْهَا بِقَبَسٍ perceive a fire; perhaps I may أَوْ أَجِدُ عَلَى النَّارِ هُدًى. bring you a brand therefrom or find guidance at the fire. ’2246A a 27:8; 28:30. and savants re-edited the Bible, they left out from it those passages which did not quite suit the Jewish temper and genius. The passages dealing with the subject of life after death seem to have been among the parts left out as the Jews, being a particularly worldly-minded people, did not relish its repeated mention. even 5. The fifth argument given in support of this thesis is that the Israelites, like the Egyptians, had an extreme dislike for pork. This argument, too, seems to stand on a flimsy ground. Though Egyptians did not like pork, pigs were kept and reared in Egypt and were offered as sacrifice at the altars of the Egyptian gods (Enc. Bib. cols. 4825, 4826). Thus the reason for the Egyptians to refrain from slaughtering pigs seems to have been that they considered it a sacred animal unlike the Israelites to whom its eating was forbidden on account of its being filthy and abominable. 6. The sixth argument given in favour of Moses being an Egyptian is that he could not properly speak Hebrew, the language of the Israelites. This argument is based on Exod. 4:10 where it is stated that Moses was not eloquent and was slow of speech and of a slow tongue. It is true that Moses suffered from an impediment in his speech and could not freely express himself. But how could the fact that Moses was not fluent and was slow of speech prove that he was slow of speech in Hebrew and therefore was not an Israelite. On the contrary, as it appears from the Bible and the Quran, when commanded by God to go to Pharaoh to preach his mission to him, Moses requested to be excused on the plea of his inability to express himself adequately. This fact, if anything, shows that Moses could not freely talk in the tongue which Pharaoh spoke and understood i. e. the Egyptian tongue, and therefore he was not an Egyptian. In short, there is no reason or justification for supposing that the name Moses is of Egyptian origin or that the man Moses was not an Israelite. The linguistic evidence of Hebrew and Arabic, combined with reason and the evidence of Jewish history and tradition, added to the account of Moses as given in the Bible and the Quran, all go to substantiate and support the fact that Moses was not an Egyptian nor was his name of Egyptian origin. 2006 2246A. Important Words: (I perceived) is derived from (anisa). They say i. e. he