Snake or dragon?…Is this a mistake made in Quran?..Can we interpret these cognate verses in another way? They claim that there is contradiction in the two verses that mentions about the story of Moses. The verses are as follows:
When Moses threw his baton, it obviously turned into a dragon. (7 Araf Surah, 107)
He threw it; and at once it turned into a fast running big snake. (20 Taha Surah, 20)
While it is mentioned in the Araf Surah that the baton of Moses turns into a dragon when he throws it, it says that it turned into a big snake in Taha Surah. Different animal names are mentioned in those verses.
The first point to take into consideration here is that the stories told in Araf Surah and Taha Surah are different. Their subjects are not same. You can understand this point if you read the pervious verses.
In the 107th verse of Araf Surah, a story about the meeting Pharaoh is told and Moses throws his baton against him. In the 20th verse of Taha Surah, Allah asks Moses to throw his baton on the floor to show him his miracles before going to Pharaoh. The baton may have turned into two different animals in two different occasions. We cannot talk about a contradiction since incidents are different.
Even if the words mentioned in two those two verses are different from each other, they have a common lexical meaning. It says in the dictionary that both of them mean “snake”. For instance the word “Hayyatun” mentioned in 20th verse of Taha Surah means “snake”. (Source: Holy Quran Dictionary, Timaş Publications page, 160)
The word “Suaba” in the 107th verse of Araf Surah also means “snake” (Source: Holy Quran Dictionary, Timaş Publications page, 112). Some interpreters do not use the ‘snake” meaning but prefer the other one. These are synonymous words. There is no any contradiction from this point of view too.
This story runs between Pharaoh who symbolizes the denier and tyrant regimes who lived and will live in all eras and Prophet Moses who symbolizes those who adopt the idea of creation and oneness. Pharaoh denies the creation just like the materialists/evolutionists who live today and imposes upon the people that life has incidentally started in Nile River.
This denial system brought forth by the Pharaoh supporters and scientifically encased is described by the snake. But this is not the truth sent to the prophets. The real science brought forward by today’s creationists demolishes the lies of Pharaoh too. This is the verse briefly. You also know that science/medicine has been symbolized by the snake in every era. Allah knows the best.
