The Old Testament paints a very noble and honourable concept of Prophethood:
“…Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” [2 Chronicles 20:20]
“Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.” [2 Chronicles 24:19]
Unfortunately the Old Testament presents the Prophets in an extremely negative light when it narrates their stories. No sin is too great for them to commit, nor is any vice beyond their lowly desires. Just one example is the allegation that David committed adultery and murder:
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”… In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”… When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. [2 Samuel 11:2-26]
This is a real problem, as it goes against the very nature and purpose of Prophethood as defined in the Bible itself.
The Qur’an defines the concept of Prophethood in very noble and honourable terms. Unlike the Bible, the Qur’an presents the Prophets in such a way that satisfies this ideal. For example, regarding David:
And We had certainly given to David and Solomon knowledge, and they said, “Praise [is due] to Allah, who has favored us over many of His believing servants.” [Chapter 27, verse 15]
And We strengthened his kingdom and gave him wisdom and discernment in speech. [Chapter 38, verse 20]
In the Qur’an there is no conflict between the purpose of Prophethood and the Prophets themselves, as they are said to be the best of mankind.
You can read more about a comparison of Prophethood in the Qur’an and Bible here.
5. Joseph’s unfulfilled dream.

Prophet Joseph had a dream about his family prostrating to him:
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” [Genesis 37:9]
It’s important to note that the moon in his dream represents his mother Rachel. The problem is that before Joseph’s dream is fulfilled, his mother passes away:
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). [ Genesis 35:19]
His brothers do eventually prostrate to him near the end of his story:
When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. [Genesis 43:26]
Notice that Rachel is not alive to prostrate to him. The dreams of God’s Prophets represent visions of the future that will come true. So this is a prophecy of God that is unfulfilled in the Bible.
In the Qur’an, there is no such issue as his mother is alive to bow and fulfil the dream:
And he raised his parents upon the throne, and they bowed to him in prostration. And he said, “O my father, this is the explanation of my vision of before. My Lord has made it reality… [Chapter 12, verse 100]
6. The ruler of Egypt – King or Pharaoh?
The Bible uses the term “Pharaoh” to refer to the ruler of Egypt in the stories of Moses, Joseph and Abraham:
During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. [Exodus 12:31]
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. [Genesis 41:14]
So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? [Genesis 12:18]
Advances in our knowledge of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs have revealed that the word ‘Pharaoh’ is a title that originates from the Egyptian term ‘per-aa’, literally “great house”, describing the royal palace. Historically, however, “Pharaoh” only started being used as a title for the king much later in Egyptian history, during the New Kingdom period:

This means that the Bible gets it wrong historically, it is an anachronism to use the word “Pharaoh” as a title in reference to the Egyptian ruler in the stories of Joseph and Abraham, as the word only took on this meaning much later in history, at the time of Moses.
The Qur’an refers to the sovereign ruler of ancient Egypt throughout its chapters:
- With regard to the Egyptian ruler who was a contemporary of Joseph, the Qur’an uses the title “King”; he is never once labelled as Pharaoh.
- As for the Egyptian ruler during the time of Moses, the Qur’an repeatedly calls him “Pharaoh” and never calls him “King”.
So, the Qur’an’s usage of “Pharaoh” respects what we know historically about the changing meaning of the word. Amazingly, these historical facts were unknown at the time of the Qur’anic Revelation in the 7th century, as our knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphs had long been lost. Knowledge of the old Egyptian hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten until they were finally deciphered in the 19th century CE with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, over 1,000 years after the revelation of the Qur’an.
You can learn more about hieroglyphs and the historicity of the Qur’an here.
7. The moon does not emit its own light.

The Bible describes the light of the sun and moon in the following verse:
God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. [Genesis 1:16]
What’s interesting is that the same Hebrew word, ‘ma’owr’, which means “light, luminary”, is used to describe the light of both the sun and moon. If this is interpreted literally then it is scientifically inaccurate, as it would indicate that the sun and the moon are similar when it comes to light. The reality is that the sun emits its own light whereas the moon reflects light from the sun, like a mirror. This is exactly how the Qur’an describes the sun and moon: