# Why does the Quran call the ruler in Yusuf's story a king but Musa's a Pharaoh?

*The Quran speaks in the terms of each people's time: Nuh, Yusuf's king and Ibrahim's name*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/3/
- Date: 2018-08-11 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: The Prophet Noah (a.s.) Did Not Live for 950 Years -Mufti Abu Layth (9:09–12:17)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpqa8rxaI-U&t=549s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/

**Topics:** How to read the Quran; Stories of the prophets; The ancient Near East and scripture

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The thousand sana follow the counting of Nuh's own people and the fifty 'am are years as we count them. The Quran relates narratives in the terms of their own time, as when Yusuf's ruler is a king and Musa's is Pharaoh.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that in Quran 29:14 the thousand sana follow the counting of Nuh's own people while the fifty 'am are years as we count them, and that the Quran relates narratives in the terms of their own time, as when the ruler in Yusuf's story is called a king and not a pharaoh.

**Evidence, his words at 10:50:** “when allah addresses certain narratives in the quran at times he reflects the reality which they were upon” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpqa8rxaI-U&t=650s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth concludes that the thousand sana in 29:14 goes by the time reckoning Nuh's people used, while the fifty 'am subtracted are fifty years as we count them, and sees great divine wisdom in the distinction between the two words. He says this is not an isolated case: in the story of Yusuf the Quran calls the ruler of Egypt a king and not a pharaoh, because the pharaonic title had not yet been established, whereas in the story of Musa the ruler is called Pharaoh. He adds that in Surah al-Baqarah the name Ibrahim is written without the letter ya, unlike elsewhere in the Quran, and connects this to the biblical account that Ibrahim changed his name during his transformation. He says that when the Quran relates a narrative it at times reflects the reality of that time in a way that may not make sense until later discoveries, such as those about the Sumerians, bring new meanings to light, and that to him this reading of the Quran is far more grounded.

## Sources and names cited

- Quran 29:14: https://quran.com/29/14
- Nuh (Noah)
- Yusuf (Joseph)
- Musa (Moses)
- Ibrahim (Abraham)
- sana (year)
- 'am (year)

## Transcript (machine tier, 9:09–12:17)

[8:55] is what it may have been so when Allah is referring to nor alaysalam he's used is referring to something that of his time the Alpha sonatine is going by the time that they were using except - of 50 years which would be our time 50 years so there is great divine wisdom in Allah mentioning the distinction between the two words and this is not new so you would see when Allah refers to so for example when Elijah referring to Yusuf

[9:33] Ali Salam and the King calls him Allah does not refer to the king as a farrell because in their time the federal thing hadn't been set up yet even though later there was the great especially in that part of Egypt and there was a great pharaoh dynasty and people knew the Egyptian kings as pharaohs but in Yusuf Ali salams time he was not they were not pharaohs yet they were just Kings so Allah addresses them by the reality although when Allah speaks of Moses he addresses him as Pharaoh another interesting thing when you look

[10:11] at a Brahimi Ali Salam Ibrahim Ali Salam even according to biblical sources changes at a certain point in his life he goes back and you know between his travels of Quran and I'm traveling at a certain point he actually changes his name and this is part of his transformation of ibrahim al islam but you know t but you notice that in like for example surah Baqarah all the way when Ibrahim the word has been written it is omitted it's not actually written as with the yah Ibrahim although people still pronounce

[10:50] it read it like that but it's not written like that it actually has no yeah whereas in all the other places in the Quran when Ibrahim is written it has the yeah now that's an interesting discussion that well why is it regime being written differently is this something to do with when he changed his name because even according to biblical narrations he changes a variation of his name during his life as part of his transformation what I'm trying to say is that when allah addresses certain narratives in the quran at times he reflects the reality which they were

[11:29] upon and that may not make sense to you at this point and hence with time you see like these discoveries of the Sumerian civilization are not so so long ago they weren't discovered in the time of the early arabs for example and many civilization did not know these are quite quite relatively recent so and with time the quran unfolds its majesty with new meanings you see like this is what i mean like this is an amazing kind of feature really for people and and some people you know they may not welcome this kind of a look towards the

[12:09] quran but to me this is much more grounded okay so

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wpqa8rxai-u/s/3/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.