|
“Pharaoh said: ‘O Haman! Build me a high tower that I may
attain the means, the means of (reaching) the heavens; so that I may look to
the God of Moses, for I do reckon him to be a liar!...” (Quran 40:36-37)
For well over a thousand years, the only ‘Haman’ that
was mentioned outside Islamic texts was a Babylonian courtier from the story of
the Tower of Babel. Academics derided his mention in the Quran, citing it as
proof of Muhammad’s supposedly inaccurately borrowing from the bible; mixing up
the Babylonian legend with the much earlier story of the Exodus.
_001.jpg)
Then, in 1799, one of Napoleon’s captains in Egypt discovered a dark grey-pinkish granite stone (above) in the port city of Rosetta. He showed
it to General Abdullah Jacques de Menou, a convert to Islam, who sent it off to
Cairo to be studied. The Rosetta Stone, which dated back to 196 BC, was
inscribed in three scripts: Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. Its discovery
meant that scholars the world over were finally able to decipher Egyptian
hieroglyphs. One result was the decoding of an inscription on a Pharaonic
stela from the Mosaic period in Vienna’s Hof-Museum. Curiously, the name
‘Haman’ was inscribed on the stela, his given
title: ‘chief of the stone quarry workers.’
Precisely the man whom a Pharaoh would ask to build a high tower!
“And (We punished) Korah, Pharaoh and Haman. And indeed Moses
came to them with Clear Signs. But they sought greatness in the land, while
they could not outreach (the wrath from) Us.” (Quran 29:39)
_002.jpg)
_003.jpg)
“So this day We shall deliver your body (from the sea) that
you (Pharaoh) may be a sign to those who come after you! And verily, many
among mankind are heedless of Our Signs.” (Quran 10:92)
“And We turned (the cities of Sodom) upside down and rained
down upon them stones of baked clay. Surely, in this are signs for those who
perceive. And, verily, they were right on the road (from Mecca to Syria, where the Dead Sea is now). Surely, therein is indeed a sign for the believers.” (Quran
15:74-77)
_004.jpg)
Prophet Lot was harmed by his people as he warned them
against their homosexuality and oppression. Until, finally, God rained
missiles of baked clay upon the Sodomites; lifting their land up from
underneath them and throwing it upside-down upon them. The waters of the Dead Sea (above) filled the huge cavity that was left in the wake of the terrible
destruction. Today, only a few ruins (below) remain from the peoples who once
thrived in the land. A land that the sins of the Sodomites made into the
lowest point on the face of the earth - in more ways than one!
_005.jpg)
So read the Quran and take lesson from the stories of
nations past; those who reached the pinnacle of civilization, amassing great
wealth, power and prestige, only to be ungrateful and forget themselves and
their Lord. They became decadent and corrupt, arrogant and haughty, cruel and
oppressive, as they turned to falsehoods and false gods. God sent to them His
Prophets, supported with miracles and revelation, to remind them of His Favors
and to be dutiful to Him, and to be just and compassionate amongst themselves
and creation at large. But they disbelieved in spite of His Clear Signs. They
rejected their Prophets, mocked, scorned and abused them, even tried to kill
them!
Finally, when they left neither hope nor excuse for
themselves; when they hastened their own destruction by daring the One God to
punish them; He did just that, and the earth was cleansed. Not only do their
relics serve as an admonition for us today, they also prove the divine origin
of the Quran itself. For none but a true Prophet of God, as Muhammad truly
was, could have recited such details and with such certainty, except that he
was inspired from above.
“For has the story not reached them of those before them? The
people of Noah, ‘Ad and Thamud… and the overthrown cities (of the Sodomites)? Their
Messengers came to them with clear proofs. It was not God Who wronged them,
but they who wronged themselves.” (Quran 9:70)
|
