oh and this is a few months late.. but here is my answer to the question of Mt Paran being Mecca. Some of you have seen it already, but I thought i'd post my response here as I don't think the answer has yet been fully given in this topic forum.
So.. now let's look at Dueternomy 33:2
Again, you must see it in context.. Moses is here about to die, and he has passed his leadership on to Joshua, Son of Nun, and has written a song to declare the praises of God and to remind the people of God's dealings with them and now he is told by God to go upto MT Nebo. His disobedience, like that of his brother Aaron, meant that God had ruled they would NOT enter the promised land that had been the vision of Israel both in Egypt and whilst they wondered in the wildnerness for 40 years. (Hebrews 11 says that his faith(that caused him to lead Israel out of Egypt) was commended, but he won't receive the final promise until we who are alive today receive it too...)
Moses now speaks a blessing out onto the people of Israel, all the 12 tribes and their members before he dies and here in chapter 33 that blessing is given.
It's addressed to the 12 tribes of Israel and it looks back and looks ahead at their experiences.
He states that
"The Lord came down from Sinai, and dawned over them from Seir, he shone forth from MT Peran. He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountaineous slopes"
Now.. where is this Mt Paran? I know that as Muslims, you believe Mecca is the Mt Paran talked about here, but I suggest it can't be for these reasons
The Wilderness of Paran in the Bible is not Arabia. The traditional view is that Paran is in the Sinai Peninsula, starting at Kadesh Barnea, which is south of Israel. Consider the following:
1. Hadad the Edomite, during the reign of Solomon, escaped to Egypt when he was a boy (1 Kings 11:17). "They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking men from Paran with them, they went to Egypt..." (1 Kings 11:8-19). To think that Hadad set out from Midian (which is south east (SE) of Israel, near the Sinai in the Arabian Peninsula, go up north east east (NEE) to "Paran" (Mecca), then somehow end up in Egypt (south west of Mecca) is unthinkable.
2. The Israelites left Sinai (after receiving the Law) for the Desert of Paran (Numbers 10:12), on the way passing through Kibroth Hattavah (Numbers 11:34), Hazeroth (Numbers 12:16), and settling at Kadesh [Barnea] of Paran (Numbers 13:26), which is the northern part of the desert. From Paran, spies were sent to Canaan to check out the land (Numbers 13:3). The spies' exploration took them from Paran through the Desert of Zin (south of Israel), Rehob, Lebo Hamath, Negev, Hebron (Numbers 13:21-22). The southern boundary of the Israelite promised land is given as "Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary wll start from the end of the Salt Sea [i.e. Dead Sea], cross south of the Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea [i.e., Mediterranean]" (Numbers 34:3-5). Zin and Kadesh are clearly to the south of Israel, so to demand that Paran is on the east of Israel requies an impossible boundary.
3. The above verses also show that Moses and the Israelites were at Paran. But if Paran is Mecca, and that Moses is a prophet of Islam, then the obvious conclusion is that Moses was at Mecca and that he must have worshipped at the Ka'aba. Nothing of this sort is ever suggested by any Muslim. It also means that the whole group of Israelites (many thousands of them) passed through Mecca.
4. Ishmael married an Egyptian. Mecca is more than 700 miles away from Egypt, and getting an Egyptian wife seems a little too far. Although this is not conclusive, getting an Egyptian wife from the Sinai Peninsula is more probable.
So, to understand the phrase "He shone forth from Mt Paran".. please also read Habbakuk chapter 3,
and see the same expression used there and what it means... and know that this was purely a reminder to Isreal that as they moved into the promised Land, no matter what lay ahead (and the spies sent out in Numbers 13 from Paran into Canaan, had seen fierce and fearful tribes who would need to be dealt with before they entered the promised land).. The God who is described as having "shone forth" is with them. The God who stood, and shook the earth, who looked and made the nations tremble.