The Quran speaks of nine signs given to Moses 17:101,27:12 divided into 6 signs to Egypt in general and 3 signs to Pharao in particular;
1)rod into serpent 7:107,20:20-1,27:10
2)shining white hand without any evil 20:22,27:12,28:32
3)capacity to ward off fear by drawing his arm to himself 28:32, an impressive feat to achieve if one considers how ruthless the Egyptian leader was, and how dreaded were his cruel punishments. An interesting linguistic observation is in the image the Quran uses to describe that ability; it says janah/wing instead of ‘hand’ to liken the state of man’s tranquillity and calmness to the state of a bird that when it observes a frightening thing, it flies, but when it regains its calmness, it gathers its wings.
4)drought resulting in shortage of thamaraat (used for product of anything conceptually) 7:130
5)overwhelming, encompassing, circling event/tufan stemming from t-w-f. In the context of a deadly event this could refer to any physically overwhelming calamity, as in a deluge 29:14, or even the thick enveloping impenetrable darkness which extinguished all lights and gripped the Egyptians with fear. The phrase tufan al dhalam refers to the intensity of the darkness of night.
6)locusts
7)lice
8)frogs
9)blood 7:133
The account and listing of the plagues in the HB is convoluted. The Torah mentions 10 signs to Egypt in general and 2 signs to Pharaoh specifically. It also says that the Israelites in particular were shown 3 of those total 12 signs to make them believe in Moses' prophethood Ex4-14; rod into serpent, Moses' hand turns leprous then is instantly healed, water of the Nile turns into blood when Moses sprinkles it on the dry land (also if he touches it with his staff, the whole river turns into blood Ex7), frogs, gnat, flies, death of livestock, boils (skin disease), hail and lightening, locusts, three days of darkness, death of all firstborns except those of the Israelites. The books of Psalms in ch78 and 105 however seem to be drawing on different traditions, as both the number and details of the plagues differ with what is stated in the Torah.
The leprous hand was, according to Jewish oral tradition partially an expression of God's reprobation for Moses "slanderously" doubting God's assurance that the Israelites will believe in his prophethood Ex4:1.
Some of the signs mentioned in the Quran are general and may include several specific ones listed in the HB, hence the difference in total number. For example hail and lightening could be, along with the three days of darkness, a sub-category of tufan. The death of livestock could be included as a consequence of the severe drought resulting in loss of produce.
In the Quran Pharao's power and dominion were destroyed in answer to his repeated rejection of the signs, including the 9 manifest signs 7:133,17:101. Moses was warned to flee the land by night so as to escape those bent on murdering him and his people. God this way caused Moses and those with him to bait Pharao and his army into their site of final retribution
26:52-68,43:49-56,44:23-30,7:134-6"if you remove the plague from us, we will certainly believe in you and we will certainly send away with you the children of Israel. But when We removed the plague from them till a term which they should attain lo! they broke (the promise). Therefore We inflicted retribution on them and drowned them in the sea because they rejected Our signs and were heedless of them".
The Quran makes it clear, the Egyptians never truly considered releasing the Israelites. Their repeated rejection of the signs led them to a point where they were planning on inflicting mass slaughter upon them. It was at that culminating point that Moses received the command to escape by night. The Quran therefore does not give credence to the events of passover where God, frustrated with the Egyptians' disregard of His signs, resorted to the mass killing of all Egyptian firstborn. This isnt a case of divine punishment falling on a nation and resulting in the collateral deaths of innocents. In this case, God's wrath is so intense, His desire for vengeance is so deep, that he purposefully targeted the innocent and left the guilty alive so as to witness the massacre of their progeny. It is important to emphasize, the criteria for death was not unrighteousness, rejection of the prophet or any type of evil behavior. The criteria was simply, being the firstborn, human or animal, and living in Egypt.
Killing was to be indiscriminate and included the Israelites' firstborn too, hence God's secretly sharing the protective ritual with them only. They were to mark their doors with the blood of a sacrificed animal, as a sign which the angel of destruction would recognize so as to spare them. But to the unfortunate who did not know the protective ritual, including "the firstborn of the maidservant sitting behind the mill", death was inevitable. Desperate, Pharao agreed letting the Israelites free temporarily, until he came back to his senses and pursued them to the seashore where he was drowned together with his army Ex13. The plague would have decimated the Israelites themselves. Passover thus later commemorated the event as a thanksgiving celebration. In the biblical account, the Israelites were saved by God from God. In the Quran, they were saved by God from Pharao. There is a reason why this 10th plague gave rise to controversies, and why the Quran doesnt give any importance to that legend retrospectively grafted unto the story. In the Quran, Pharao was the baby killer from whom the Israelites needed saving.
As a side note, in sura qasas it says the Egyptians' initial decree to mass slaughter the newborn Israelite males was due to fear 28:6. It further says that Moses' rescue and adoption by Pharao's household was divinely decreed
28:8"that he (Moses) might be an enemy and a grief for them".
We are thus given the background for that fear of the Egyptians, which led to the cruel decree as regards the infant Israelites; a newborn male was destined to become a formidable foe to the Egyptian elite. They knew it somehow and wanted to prevent it by systematically slaughtering all newborn males as well as cutting off the Hebrew lineage by taking their women to themselves. Other places where reference to that slaughter is made 2:49,7:141,14:6. Later on, when Moses returned to Egypt as a prophet, Pharao threatened to repeat that violent crime 7:127,40:25. It must have been a dreadful news to the enslaved Israelites, a powerful deterrent for anyone contemplating to join Musa.
In the Quran thus, no credence is given to the events of passover as depicted in the Bible where God decides to slaughter all firstborns, frustrated by the Egyptians' denial of the miracles and plagues. The order came from Pharao and was aimed at punishing those that rebelled against him.
In the HB Ex1 the Egyptians' fear was due to the enslaved Israelites' increasing demography, swelling to the extent that they "became so numerous that the land was filled with them", which is a historical inaccuracy. In their oral tradition however it says
"Pharaoh cared only about the males, because his astrologers told him that a son was destined to be born who would save them (Exod. Rabbah1:18)".
These "astrologers" were probably just echoing what the Israelites themselves were rumouring amidst their intense suffering, a saviour is bound to rise and take them to the land promised to their forefather.
This 10th plague is obviously one that left the Jewish thinkers uneasy throughout the centuries, to the point they came up with a way to shift the blame away from God by arguing that the firstborn were executed for murdering their own fathers
"When God sent the plague of the firstborn ... all the firstborn Egyptians went to speak to their fathers and said “Everything which Moses has said has come true, don’t you want us to live? Let us get the Hebrew slaves out of our homes now. Otherwise we are dead.” The fathers answered “even if all of Egypt dies they are not leaving.” All the firstborn gathered in front of Pharaoh and screamed “Please remove the Hebrews, because of them evil will befall us and you.” Pharaoh said to his servants, “Remove the protesters and break their knees.” What did the young Egyptians do? Each took a sword and killed his father". (Midrash Tehillim 136:6; Tanchuma, Parshat Bo 18).
Recent scholarship has unearthed evidence associating the passover ritual with Canaanite theology, which heavily influenced the Israelites' own religion. This may be a case where pagan tradition was fused with historical events. The name itself, "pesach", before its retrospective application to the event of death "passing over" the Israelites' houses, is found in semi-nomadic rituals of protection from a malevolent deity and demons during spring time (Leonhard Rost/Martin Noth).
Further reading answering Sam Shamoun "REFUTING ADNAN RASHID PT. 1"
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