Home > Torah - Leviticus to Deuteronomy Stories in the Quran
It is recorded in Numbers 20:7–12. In the Wilderness of Zin, God commands Moses to "speak to the rock" to bring forth water. Instead, Moses strikes the rock twice in anger. Because of this disobedience and failure to uphold God's holiness, Moses is punished and barred from entering the Promised Land.
The Quran eliminates the specific sin of Moses. In the Bible, striking the rock was a grave error that cost Moses the Promised Land. In the Quran, God commands the strike. If the Quran were true, God punished Moses in the Bible for doing exactly what He commanded in the Quran.
This suggests the author of the Quran was confused by the narrative details, conflating the first rock incident (Exodus 17, where striking was commanded) with the second (Numbers 20, where speaking was commanded).
Islam sanitizes the prophets of their moral failings (Ismah), thereby losing the Biblical lesson on God's holiness.