“Paran is in Sinai, not in the Hijaz”

The objection

“Paran is in Sinai, not in the Hijaz.”

In Deuteronomy, before his death, Moses blesses Israel:

The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

Deuteronomy 33:2

The Muslim reading sees in it three messages: the Torah at Sinai, the Gospel at Seir, the Qur’an at Paran, which is Mecca (research file v1, part 1). In its strongest terms, the objection replies:

Paran is a stage of the Exodus, between Sinai and Canaan: in Numbers, it is from there that Moses sends out the spies (Numbers 13:3; research file v1, part 1).
The verse describes a single coming of God, the one at Sinai, and it speaks of the past (research file v1, part 1; Ameri, p. 110, 120).
The Jews never read in it the announcement of a prophet (Ameri, p. 117).

Christian missionaries place this Paran in Sinai, and Christians have always contested the verse in its context, its words and its translation (Ameri, p. 110, 115).

The answer

The surest landmark: Ishmael dwelt in Paran

The Bible itself gives the landmark: Ishmael “dwelt in the wilderness of Paran” (Genesis 21:21). Sami Ameri takes it as his way out of the confusion of the Parans (Ameri, p. 124). The sons of Ishmael dwelt “from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt” (Genesis 25:18): from the north of Yemen to the border of Egypt, according to the works he cites, and Charles Gore makes Paran the land of the Ishmaelite tribes (Ameri, p. 124-130; al-Saqqar, p. 82-83).

Several Parans: the reference works acknowledge it

The Jewish Encyclopedia distinguishes three Parans; the Encyclopaedia Biblica, Luther, Driver and Adam Clarke admit the confusion, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica doubts that the Paran of Deuteronomy 33:2, set so close to Seir and to Sinai in this verse, lies in Sinai (Ameri, p. 121-123). One name can designate two places, as Seir does (al-Saqqar, p. 87-88).

The Bible, moreover, distinguishes the two wildernesses: Israel sets out “out of the wilderness of Sinai”, and the cloud rests “in the wilderness of Paran” (Numbers 10:12; Ameri, p. 122-123). And Seir lies outside Sinai: if Paran were there, the order Sinai, Seir, Paran would trace an absurd itinerary (Ameri, p. 115-116).

The translations and the ancient witnesses

The Samaritan Arabic translation, in a manuscript of the John Rylands Library edited by Haseeb Shehadeh, puts “al-Hijaz” in place of Paran, in Genesis 21:21 and in Deuteronomy 33:2 (Ameri, p. 131-135; al-Saqqar, p. 83).
Saadia Gaon renders Genesis 16:7 as “the road of Hajar al-Hijaz” (al-Saqqar, p. 83).
Jerome, translating Eusebius, places Paran in “Arabia deserta”, and the Armenian Sebeos has the conquerors, “sons of Ishmael”, set out from the wilderness of Paran (al-Saqqar, p. 84-85). In the ninth century, Thomas Artsruni places Mecca in “Paran of Arabia Petraea” (Ameri, p. 101-102).

The Jews linked Paran to Ishmael and to revelation

The Sifre Devarim, a commentary older than Islam, says that the Torah was given in four languages and connects Paran with Arabic. The Midrash Tanhuma, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer and Rashi link Paran with the sons of Ishmael (Ameri, p. 117-120; al-Saqqar, p. 86-87).

These texts say that the Torah was offered to the sons of Ishmael, who refused it. But they acknowledge the link of Paran with revelation and with Ishmael, and that is what matters. The verse, for its part, says that God “came” from Sinai but “shined forth” from Paran: a stronger word, which implies a welcome (Ameri, p. 117-120).

A prophecy, not a memory

The chapter is a blessing, pronounced before death (Deuteronomy 33:1), like that of Jacob in Genesis, who tells his sons “that which shall befall you in the last days” (Genesis 49:1; Ameri, p. 110). The prophets often speak of the future in the past tense (Ameri, p. 110-111; al-Saqqar, p. 88-89). Habakkuk takes up the scene: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran” (Habakkuk 3:3). The King James puts the verb in the past; but the Hebrew yavo is an imperfect, which the Septuagint and the Vulgate render as a future (Ameri, p. 113).

Israel, for its part, never knew a manifestation at Sinai, then at Seir, then a more radiant one at Paran (Ameri, p. 111). In Deuteronomy, it was defeated at Seir (Deuteronomy 1:44), and God gave the mountain to the sons of Esau (Deuteronomy 2:5; Ameri, p. 116).

As for the idea of a single theophany, coming, rising and shining forth speak of the message sent to men; the Bible, moreover, gives the name of God to those who represent Him: “he judgeth among the gods” (Psalm 82:1; Ameri, p. 120-121; al-Saqqar, p. 85-86). And the “saints” who accompany him are believers, not angels: “they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words” (Deuteronomy 33:3; Ameri, p. 139).

What the objection gets right

There is indeed a wilderness of Paran on the route of the Exodus: in Numbers, Moses sends the spies from there (Numbers 13:3), and the dictionaries acknowledge several Parans (Ameri, p. 121-122). That Paran exists.

But it does not decide the Paran of Deuteronomy 33:2, which Genesis connects with Ishmael and which Samaritan and Jewish translators rendered as the Hijaz. And if a reader rejected Paran, the land would still be named elsewhere: Kedar and Sela in Isaiah, the valley of Baca in the Psalms.

Sources for this page

Bible: King James Version.
Sami Ameri, al-Bishara bi-nabi al-islam fi kutub al-yahud wa-l-nasara, Takween, 2nd ed., 2021, p. 101-102, 109-140.
Munqidh al-Saqqar, Hal bashshara al-Kitab al-Muqaddas bi-Muhammad ﷺ?, al-Huda wa-l-Nur series, 5, 2023, p. 82-89.
Research file “Annonces du Prophète ﷺ”, v1.0, 14 October 2026, part 1.