The hardening of Pharao's heart

The passage mentioning the hardening of Pharao's heart has troubled biblical commentators because it seems like a direct action by YHWH preventing people from the right path. In the biblical narrative Moses was sent with miracles to pharao but with a clear purpose; to cause God -in answer to Pharao's denial of the miracle- to unleash His series of punishments on Egypt and consequently free the enslaved Israelites. This is according to the principles that YHWH disposes as He wills of the hearts of the people, and more particularly of nations' leaders 

Prov21:1"A king's heart is like rivulets of water in the Lord's hand; wherever He wishes, He turns it".

 For the attainment of this purpose in regards to the Egyptian ruler 

Ex7:3-5,13,Ex10:1"I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them". 

Pharao and his officials had no other issue but to be doomed 

Ex14:4"And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army". 

That outcome was foreseen even prior to Moses' confrontation with the Egyptian ruler. God tells Moses, Pharao will not heed his message unless forcefully compelled by God to do so Ex3:19. And that is because Pharao's heart was purposefully hardened prior to the performance of miracles. Why would YHWH inflict Pharao with spiritual blindness if he was already blind in the first place and unable to hearken Moses' calls? This would render YHWH's curse redundant. YHWH's purpose in blinding Pharao is clearly stated in the text, it was to create a chain of events meant at destroying the Egyptian oppressors and ultimately freeing the Israelites. YHWH also had a personal grudge with the gods of Egypt and their worldly representor, Pharao. YHWH wanted prove to the Egyptians in a spectacular manner that it was He, not the false gods, that controlled all aspects of their lives. YWHW skilfully orchestrates, through Pharao' obstinate rejection of the plagues and Moses' miracles, a gradual public battle of the gods 

Ex9:15-16"For if now I had stretched forth My hand and I had smitten you and your people with pestilence, you would have been annihilated from the earth. But for this reason I have allowed you to stand in order to show you My strength and in order to declare My Name all over the earth". 

That battle of the gods had to be repeated several times for YHWH to make his point clear to the Egyptians, hence the gradual destruction of land, and the preservation of Pharao as YHWH's main tool in the process. Had Pharao repented, he would have told the Egyptians to follow suit, which would have in turn frustrated YHWH's plans, hence the hardening of his heart. This removed any possibility of reform at the sight of the signs and warnings 

Ex8:15"So the necromancers said to Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God," but Pharaoh's heart remained steadfast, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had spoken". 

It is interesting to note that even prior to that, the subjugation, enslavement and opression of the Israelites themselves is attributed to God who is said to have stirred the peoples' hatred and jealousy towards them 

Ps105:23-5"Israel came to Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And He made His people very fruitful, and He made it stronger than its adversaries. He turned their heart to hate His people, to plot against His servants". 

The same was done later to Sihon king of Heshbon whose spirit was caused by God 

"to be hardened and his heart to be obstinate". 

Sihon consequently refused Moses' peace offer and was defeated in battle, his land conquered, his people massacred Deut2:26-35. Similarly, we read in Isa37:7 of God instilling a certain desire into the wicked Assyrian king Sennacherib that would ultimately create a chain of events leading to his death. Again later, God would harden the hearts of the Canaanites in order that Israel 

Josh11:20-23"might destroy them completely, and that they might have no favor, that they (the Jews) might destroy them as the Lord had commanded Moses". 

In Judges9:22-24

"God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the inhabitants of Shechem" 

in order that the king Abimelech might be severely punished for his wickedness and murders of the sons of Gideon 

53"Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers". 

YHWH prevented Solomon's son, Rehoboam, from hearkening the wise counsel of his father's former advisers about using tact, diplomacy in his dealings with the people who were heavily burdened by the royal taxation system instaured since the time of king David. YHWH prevented Rehoboam in order that the promised punishment of Solomon for his alleged sins, including the sin of idolatry, comes true through the scission of the kingdom 

1Kings11,12:15"The king did not listen to the people, for it was something brought about by the Lord, in order to fulfill His word". 

Just as one day, YHWH will draw Magog by "hooks into its jaws" as would be done with a wild beast Ezek38, throughout the course of history, God would rise and forcefully incite neighboring nations to destroy and subjugate the Israelites for their transgressions. These punishing nations were later destroyed themselves, despite having done the task required of them. This would be the case of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Amonites, Moabites etc as described in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

The Quran says on the contrary that Moses and Aaron were primarily sent to Pharao and the corrupt elite around him to make them mend their ways by adopting purity of belief, morals and deeds. That is why his heart could not, and was not hardened prior to his successive encounters with Moses as a prophet, and witnessing the divine signs. In fact the Quran explains that part of the reason why Moses' mother was told to send her infant son drifting upon the river until he would be picked up and reared within Pharaoh's household, was to prepare him for this momentous task. It is important to note, in the Quranic narrative, Moses' mission was not primarily aimed at freeing the Israelites. This was secondary. His most important purpose was to confront Pharao and urge him to reform, to desist from his cruelty and claims to the divine 

20:24"Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed". 

His tyranical behavior, including the enslavement of the Israelites stemmed directly from his most evil transgressions. That is why the messenger was told to tackle the problem at its root. Moses was going to meet the most powerful man on earth, a tyrant who knew no mercy. Allah strengthened him with miracles, and the assistance of his brother Aaron. The secrets of his years as an infant, floating under Allah's protection on the river, then raised inside Pharaoh's household were then brought to light. Some of the intricacies of the causalities of life were unveiled to Moses, and how Allah's will is in control at ever step. By allowing Moses to be reared under Pharaoh's nose, yet at the same time preventing the tyrant's hand from harming him, God was preparing Moses for his momentous task, giving him the courage of going back to Egypt to confront him. Just as his enemy could not harm him as an infant, so will be the case now 

20:37-9"And We had already conferred favor upon you another time, When We inspired to your mother what We inspired, [Saying], 'Cast him into the chest and cast it into the river, and the river will throw it onto the bank; there will take him an enemy to Me and an enemy to him.' And I bestowed upon you love from Me that you would be brought up under My eye". 

Further, to even be allowed an audience the way Moses was, a special kind of relationship had to exist between him and Pharao. All prophets when they are sent to a powerful nation, begin by targeting the corrupt and tyrannical leaders of that nation 

10:75-6"Then We sent after them Musa and Harun to Firon and his chiefs with Our signs, but they were arrogant and they were a criminal people. So when the truth came to them from Us, they said: Indeed, this is surely an obvious magic". 

The particularity of Pharao's transgression, that made him, among other sins 

20:24"exceed all limits" 

was his claim to divine status 28:38,79:24, a sin which a prophet of God could never overlook. Part of the kitab revealed to Moses was thus aimed at Pharao, more specifically the message of tawhid/divine unity as is clear from his exchanges with the ruler. However, most of that kitab of Moses was filled with directives for the children of Israel, to establish them as a nation before God 23:45-49,32:23. Their preparation had to begin in Egypt itself. After Moses' prophetic authority was accepted among his people thanks to his public defeat of Pharao and his magicians, and as the plagues were being inflicted upon Egypt, the Israelites were told to reform themselves and begin establishing regular prayers 10:87. Although some followed the instructions, the majority resisted and died with the plagues. 

Going back to the issue of determining the object of Moses and Aaron's mission to Pharao, as per the Quranic account, what transpires is that they were trying to show Pharao that he was threading an ungodly path, all the while requesting the freedom of an enslaved nation. The reform of Pharao consisted in reminding him and the Egyptian elite of the forgotten path of the righteous people that preceded them. These people were once even among the ruling class of Egypt. It is the way of Jacob and Joseph whom God had raised to power and a status of eminence in that land. Although their righteous, monotheistic ways were once accepted by the ruling class, the rest of the population did not readily assimilate their practices. When that polytheistic population eventually made it back to power after Joseph's passing 40:34-5, these righteous ways were nevertheless kept being practiced in the land, including by the righteous people of Israel for centuries before they themselves in great proportions, gradually forsook the straight path and alligned themselves with the practices and superstitions of the land. This was inevitable considering the duress of slavery that prevented them from living in accordance with their own spiritual requirements 

25:36"Go to the people who denied Our Revelations". 

The Egyptian ruling class even in the time of Moses, were thus aware of prophets having gone in their midst, and knew of their religion. As a side note According to oral Jewish tradition based on Ex5:4, the Levites were in fact dispensed from the hard labor inflicted on the rest of the nation, because they were supposed to be the ones devoted to spiritual activities among their people. This Egyptian ruling class however, like the people of all ages, rejected the ways of rectitude based on the blind following and attachement to the ways of the close generations that passed away, and they were concerned above all for their material benefits; the fear of losing their social advantages and the suspicion that the reformers were in fact motivated by a desire of supplanting them from their socio-economical eminence 10:78,20:47-52,28:36. 

In the Quran it was therefore not until after Pharao's obstinate rejection of God's signs that were actually meant at making him mend his ways 7:130-5,17:101-2,20:56,43:48 but that had the reverse effect of increasing his arrogance and folly, that his and his official's hearts were irreversibly hardened, kept away from the correct path 10:75-89,40:37. 

The Bible says the entire opposite as shown earlier. Pharao's heart was hardened from the get go, before he even had a chance to reform himself by being exposed to Moses' message and miracles. In the Quran, instead of this being some kind of arbitrary and wanton divine curse, it is but a natural consequence of repeated, wilful spiritual neglect to the point spirituality is degraded beyond repair. The Quran gives several transgressions, which, despite the warnings, brought Pharao closer to spiritual collapse; going as far as requesting for the building of a tower to reach for the heavens and disprove Moses' claims, misusing his powers without limits to prevent the people from practicing the true religion and establishing places of worship, and finally the direct attempt at murdering God's manifest messenger 44:20-22. Disbelievers of all times suffer the same consequences when they repeatedly deny God's signs 13:33. At that point, once it had been made clear that Moses' opponents will not desist from rejecting and will only increase further in their animosity, to the extent that Moses and his people had no other option but to flee, Moses invoked Allah's curse upon his enemies. He asked God to harden Pharao's heart and destroy what gave him the ability to oppress the people and corrupt the land, and God accepted Moses' prayer instantly.