Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology, vol. I.

Frithjof Schuon, Understanding Islam (Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom Books, 1994), 1.

Hugh Talat Halman, "We Have Found Muhammad, a Prophet Like Moses": How Comparisons between Muhammad and Musa in the Qur`an and Sira Reflect the Hermeneutics of Genre (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Master`s Thesis, 1993), 76.

Qur`an 4:153, 11:96, 23:45, 28:35, 44:19, 51:38, 40:23.

See Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, under [Pharaoh].

Ibn al-‘Arabi, The Bezels of Wisdom, R. W. J. Austin, trans. (New York, Ramsey, New Jersey, Toronto: Paulist Press, 1980), 249-266. The Arabic title of this chapter is Hikma `uluwiyyah fi kalimah Musawiyyah.

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, Fusus al-hikam, Abu al-`Ala al-`Afifi, ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-`Arabi, 1980), 213. My translation.

Asad, M.(1997) The Message of the Qur'an. Gibraltar, Spain: Dar Al-Andalus.

Hasan, M. and S.A. Usmani. (1989) Al-Qur'an Al-Kareem, wa-Tarjamatu Ma'ania wa-Tafseer ila-Lughat-il-Urdiyyah. Medina, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd Qur'an Printing Complex.

While what follows is scriptural reasoning, these reflections also are testing the scriptural viability of the expressivist view in recent penal theory. For a philosophical articulation of this view, see R. A. Duff, Trials and Punishments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Broadly speaking, I think that my view is close to the views of Basit Koshul and Ahmed Afzaal, and all of us agree on the rationality of the plagues to a certain point. I find it fascinating, however, that the killing of the firstborn is not a part of the Qur`anic narrative, as this difference certainly leads to different hermeneutical and ethical issues for the three traditions.

Of course Protestants have generally acknowledged the relative authority of the Catholic tradition(s), simply distinguishing scripture from what is not scripture. Occasionally, one sees a more responsible characterization in the phrase, scriptura suprema over sola scriptura.

Note the remarkable statement in Exodus 7:1 "The Lord said to Moses, `See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.`"

But see Rashi there (or his source, Baba Kama 92a) for a different explanation relevant to our discourse.