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Does Pharaoh's infertility—meaning he had no sons or daughters—contradict the circulated story of his daughter's hairdresser, and how accurate is the information about Pharaoh's infertility?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It has not been reported in the Quran or authentic Sunnah that Pharaoh was sterile, but it was said that he was or that he had only one daughter. Some exegetes, in their interpretation of the verse: ﴿Then Pharaoh’s people picked him up﴾ [Al-Qasas: 8], mentioned that it was his daughter who picked Moses up from the water, and that he had no son. Al-Tabari recounts from Muhammad ibn Qays that Pharaoh’s daughter found the ark in the Nile, and when she saw it, she was cured of leprosy. So, she took it to her mother. When Pharaoh wanted to kill him, his wife said: ﴿A comfort to my eyes and yours. Do not kill him.﴾ [Al-Qasas: 9].

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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