Meaning of the verse “So this day We shall deliver your (dead) body (out from the sea)”
Question

                What is the meaning of the verse in which Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “So this day We shall deliver your (dead) body (out from the sea)” [Yoonus 10:92]?.
Praise be to Allah.This verse 
    in Soorat Yoonus comes in the context of describing the attitude of the 
    tyrant Pharaoh towards the Prophet of Allaah Moosa (peace be upon him) and 
    those of the Children of Israel who believed with him. That was when Moosa 
    (peace be upon him) set out with the believers to migrate to the blessed 
    land, and Pharaoh and his troops pursued them in order to bring them back 
    and punish them. During their lengthy travels, they came to the sea and 
    could not go any further, but Allaah honoured His Prophet Moosa and the 
    believers who were with him by making the sea dry for them so that they 
    could walk across it, so they crossed over in the sight of their enemies, 
    whilst they were looking on. The enemy of Allaah Pharaoh, in his arrogance 
    and foolishness, set out in a ship behind Moosa and the people who were with 
    him, but he and those who were with him drowned in the same sea that Moosa 
    and the believers with him had crossed. 
When death 
    was surrounding the tyrant on all sides, and the waves of the sea were 
    tossing him around, and he was sure that drowning was to be his unavoidable 
    fate, he said: “I believe that none has the right 
    to be worshipped but He (Allaah) in Whom the Children of Israel believe, and 
    I am one of the Muslims (those who submit to Allaah’s Will)” [Yoonus 10:90]. 
    But it was too late, the time for repentance had passed and the time for 
    believing ended once death approached, and the evildoer lost all strength 
    and wiles. 
Undoubtedly 
    the death of this extreme tyrant in such a manner is one of the greatest 
    signs which demonstrate the consequences of stubbornness, wrongdoing and 
    arrogance. Hence Allaah wanted to establish and confirm this sign, so as to 
    dispel any doubt or confusion. So He decreed that the body of the Pharaoh 
    should appear motionless and dead on the shore, so that his people and those 
    who used to worship him could see him, and that would be the most eloquent 
    lesson to them. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 
“So this 
    day We shall deliver your (dead) body (out from the sea) that you may be a 
    sign to those who come after you! And verily, many among mankind are 
    heedless of Our Ayaat”
[Yoonus 
    10:92]
Ibn Katheer 
    (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Ibn ‘Abbaas and others of the salaf 
    said that some of the Children of Israel doubted the death of Pharaoh, so 
    Allaah commanded the sea to throw out his body, whole but lifeless, wearing 
    his well known armour, onto a raised portion of land, so that they might see 
    that he was indeed dead. Hence Allaah says “So this 
    day We shall deliver your (dead) body” i.e., we will raise you onto a 
    prominent part of the land. “your (dead) body” – 
    Mujaahid said: your body. Al-Hasan said: a body in which there is no soul. 
    ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Shaddaad said: whole and complete, i.e., not decomposed, so 
    that they may recognize him and be certain that it is him. Abu Sakhr said: 
    with your armour. There is no contradiction between any of these opinions, 
    as we shall see below in sha Allaah. 
The words “that 
    you may be a sign to those who come after you” 
    means, so that this will be proof of your death for the Children of Israel, 
    and will show that Allaah is the One who is All-Powerful, and the forelock 
    of every living being is in His hand, and nothing can resist His wrath. 
Tafseer 
    Ibn Katheer (2/565) 
And this is 
    what happened. The Children of Israel saw Pharaoh lying dead with their own 
    eyes, so he was a sign for those who saw him then, and he is a sign for all 
    those who come after him and hear the story of his death. 
There is 
    nothing in this sign to indicate that his body would be preserved until the 
    Day of Resurrection, as some people imagine. That is interpreting the 
    Qur’aan in a manner that is farfetched. If the purpose had been to preserve 
    the body of the Pharaoh for all those people who came after him, so that 
    they could see his dead body for themselves, then his body would have 
    remained well known to all those who came after him and those who heard his 
    story, so that the lesson could be learned and the sign made manifest and 
    the promise fulfilled. What happened to his story so that people forgot it 
    and for so many centuries no one remember it, until the archaeologists 
    claimed that they had found the body of the Pharaoh who was drowned? 
Shaykh 
    Saalih al-Fawzaan (may Allaah preserve him) said: The meaning of Allaah’s 
    words, “that
    you may be a sign to those who come after you” 
    is: so that there would be evidence for the Children of Israel that you were 
    indeed dead, and that Allaah is the All-Powerful, and the forelock of every 
    living being is in His hand, and no one can escape His punishment, even if 
    he is in a position of authority and power among people. This does not imply 
    that the body of the Pharaoh would remain preserved until our times, as the 
    ignorant think, because the purpose of his body being thrown from the sea 
    was so that it would be known that he had died and to confirm that for those 
    among the Children of Israel who doubted it. This purpose was fulfilled, and 
    the body of Pharaoh is like any other body, it is bound to disintegrate and 
    nothing will be left of it but that which is left of any other body, which 
    is the end of the tailbone, from which each person’s body will be created 
    anew on the Day of Resurrection, as it says in the hadeeth. So the body of 
    Pharaoh is no different from the body of anyone else. And Allaah knows 
    best. 

    Al-Muntaqa min Fataawa al-Fawzaan (1/question no. 
    132). 
But it may 
    be said here that if it were to so happen that the Pharaoh’s body appeared 
    again, and the experts in history and archaeology were to confirm that this 
    is the body of the Pharaoh who is mentioned by Allaah in His Book, that 
    would be an indication of the truth of what the Qur’aan says about the body 
    of Pharaoh being delivered (from the sea). 
The scholar 
    Taahir ibn ‘Ashoor (may Allaah have mercy on him) says: One of the 
    subtleties of the Qur’aan is the words of Allaah (interpretation of the 
    meaning): “So this day We shall deliver your (dead) body (out from the 
    sea) that you may be a sign to those who come after you”. This is 
    something the like of which was not mentioned by anyone who wrote about 
    Pharaoh; it is one of the scientific miracles of the Qur’aan, as the verse 
    is in accordance with historical facts.” 

    Al-Tahreer wa’l-Tanweer (1/2065) 
Conclusion: 
    The body of Pharaoh was delivered from the sea that day and protected from 
    decomposition, but that does not necessarily mean that it will be preserved 
    until the Day of Resurrection. If it is proven by the archaeologists and 
    historians that the body of Pharaoh is still preserved today, and it is what 
    is displayed in some museums, it is not permissible to claim that this 
    preservation is a miracle from Allaah for all people, rather it is just 
    historical confirmation that is in accordance with what is in the Qur’aan, 
    and that is the miracle. 
And Allaah 
    knows best.