The exodus is an event of great importance and an established historical event which appears in the scriptural texts. This event is found in the Exodus, the second book of Pentateuch (Torah), and also in the Quran across more than ten surahs having long descriptions in surahs: 7, 10, 20 and 26. However, study of both the Biblical and the Quranic texts may help us to establish the faith of the people who departed from Egypt led by Moses. These are Hebrew people and are the descendants of Jacob whose another name is Israel, but there is a misconception around us that these people were Jews and their religion was Judaism.
The exodus according to the Bible
The growth of the Israelite population in Egypt, which prompts a new Pharaoh to enslave them and subject them to brutal forced labor. When even this fails to halt their expansion, the Pharaoh orders the slaughter of all Hebrew male infants, but the Hebrew midwives defy the order, and God blesses them for their courage. The chapter concludes with the desperate decree for all Egyptians to throw Israelite baby boys into the Nile River, a part of Pharaoh’s efforts to commit genocide and suppress their growth.
1:1 Now these are names of the Children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin.
1:4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
1:5 All the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls; for Joseph was in Egypt already.
1:6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and that generation.
1:7 And the Children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land with them.
1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
1:9 And he said unto the people. Behold, the people of the children of Israel are mightier than we.
1:13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour.
1:14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
1:15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one Shiphrah and the name of the other Purah.
1:16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
1:18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?
1:19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
1:20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
1:21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
The exodus according to the Quran
The story of exodus is almost the same in the Quran as in the Bible mentioning the oppression of Pharaoh as well as the favors of God on the children of Israel referring them to their twelve tribes, while Moses was sent with God’s revelations that he shall bring his people out of the darkness into the light and shall remind them with days of God, while we find in it that there are references of the different ethnic groups, if they believe in God and Last Day and do the righteous deeds will be rewarded in the Hereafter:
[7:137] And we had made inheritors the people of those who have been oppressed at east of the land and west of it, which we have blessed in it. The best word of your Lord has fulfilled for children of Israel for that they had been patient. And we destroyed what Pharaoh and his people had done to make and what they had done to build.
[7:138] And we had led Children of Israel across the sea. Then they had come to a people devoted to idols belong to them. They said, “O Moses, make for us a god like what gods belong to them.” He said, “Indeed, you are a people to be ignorant.
[7:139] Indeed, these are destroyed what they are in it and are worthless what they have done to accomplish.”
[7:140] He said, “Other than God should I seek for you a god, while He has preferred you over a people of the world?”
[7:141] And when we had saved you from a people of Pharaoh inflicting you a horrible of the punishment to slay your sons and to spare your women. That was a difficult test for you from your Lord.
[10:90] And we passed the Children of Israel across the sea, then Pharaoh and his troops lowed them in rebellion and enmity, until when the drowning overtook him, he said, “I have believed that there is no god except the One in Him has believed the Children of Israel, and I am with the Submitters.”
[10:91] Are you now? And certainly, you had disobeyed before and you have been with the corrupters.
[10:92] So today, we will save of your body that you would be a sign for whoever after yourself, while indeed, many of the people are surely heedless from our signs.
[20:77] And certainly, we had inspired to Moses that you shall travel by night with My servants and shall strike for them a dry path through the sea; do not fear for overtaking, nor to be afraid (of drowning).”
[20:78] Then Pharaoh followed them with his troops, so there had covered them from the sea what had covered them.
[20:79] And Pharaoh had misled his people, and he had not guided them.
[20:80] O Children of Israel, we delivered you from your enemy, we addressed you on the right side of the Mount, and we sent down to you manna and quails.
[20:81] You shall eat of good things that we have provided you, and you should not transgress therein, lest My wrath descends on you. And whoever upon him descends My wrath, then indeed, he has lost.
[20:82] Indeed, I am surely forgiving for whoever has repented, and has believed, and has done as a righteous, then he has been guided.
[26:16] So go both of you to Pharaoh and say, “Indeed, we are messengers of Lord of the worlds.
[26:17] That send Children of Israel with us.”
[26:18] He said, “Do we not raise you as a child among us, and you have remained among us for years of your life?
[26:19] And you have done your deed that which you have done, and you are of the ungrateful ones.”
[26:20] He said, “I have done it when I was among those who have gone astray.
[26:21] So I had fled when I have been feared from you. Then my Lord has granted judgment for me and has made me one of the sent ones.
[26:22] And that is a favor you reproach it on me that you have enslaved Children of Israel!”
[2:60] And when Moses asked for water for his people, then we said, “Strike the stone with your staff.” Then there had gushed forth twelve springs from it. Certainly, every people knew their drinking place. “Eat and drink from a provision of God, and do not act like wicked in the earth being corruptors.”
[7:160] And we had divided them into twelve tribes of communities, and we inspired to Moses when his people had asked him for water that you shall strike the rock with your staff that there had gushed forth twelve springs from it; certainly, each tribe had known of their drinking place. And we had shaded them with the clouds and had sent down to them the manna and the quail: you shall eat from good things what we have provided for you. And they had not wronged to us, but they had done to wrong to themselves.
[14:5] And certainly, we had sent Moses with our revelations that you shall bring your people out of the darkness into the light and shall remind them with days of God. Indeed, in that surely, there are signs for every patient and thankful one.
[14:6] And when Moses said to his people, “Remember a favor of God upon you when He had saved you from a people of Pharaoh inflicting you with a worst punishment to slay your sons and spare your women. And in that there was a difficult test from your Lord.”
[14:7] And your Lord has proclaimed: “If you have been thankful, surely, I will increase for you, and if you have been unthankful, indeed, My punishment surely, will be severe.
[14:8] And Moses said, “If you disbelieve, you and whoever all is in the earth, then indeed, God is surely Rich, Praiseworthy.”
[2:62] Indeed, those who have believed, and those who turned to Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians; whoever has believed in God and the Last Day, and has done as righteous, then for them, there is their reward with their Lord; and there is no fear for them, nor do they grieve.
[5:69] Indeed, those who have believed, and those who turned to Jews, and the Sabians, and the Christians; whoever has believed in God and the Last Day, and has done as righteous, then there is no fear for them, nor do they grieve.
[22:17] Indeed, those who have believed, and those who turned to Jews, and the Sabians, and the Christians, and the Magians, and those who associated partners; indeed, God will judge between themselves on a day of the Resurrection. Indeed, God is a Witness over all things.
The religious faith belongs to Israelites at the time of exodus
The religious faith that belongs to Israelites at the time of exodus excludes them to be Jews as found in the New Testament. The first time the term “Jew” is used in the New Testament is in John 4:9, where the Samaritan woman refers to Jesus, stating, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”. And the Gospel of John also uses the term “the Jews” several times in chapter 8, when Jesus was speaking to a group of the people of Israel. So, the Israelites were not Jews, nor their religion was not Judaism when they departed from Egypt, except was being invented by the people later:
3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
8:48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?
Abraham according to the scriptures
Abraham is a very important figure for his role as the spiritual ancestor of the faith through obedience to God, and his status as the first known monotheist who shifted from polytheism to a belief in one God as we see in the scriptures:
Genesis 12 describes God’s command to Abram to leave his homeland for a new land, promising him a great nation, blessings, and a great name, with all families of the earth being blessed through him. So he departed from Haran with his family and arrived in Canaan, but a subsequent famine that leads them to Egypt, and the plagues God sends upon Pharaoh for Sarai’s sake.
In Romans chapter 4, Paul explains that Abraham’s “religion” which exemplifies the Christian concept of justification by faith, not by works, making Abraham a model for both Jewish and Gentile believers who trust in Christ for salvation being the Christian concept that Abraham did not belong to a religion with the name, but he was the first monotheist and the patriarch.
While the Quan teaches us in 26:69-87 that at time of Abraham people turned to the idol worshipers and he had established worship of one God applying strong logic that God is only One, who is worthy of our worship so that the contemporary and the people of subsequent generations to be worshipers of one God avoiding idol worship, and he had been neither a Jew or a Christian as found in 3:67 as the people of scripture have turned themselves into Jews and Christians avoiding the practices of Monotheism given by God from our birth as found in 30:30, while God teaches in 22:78 that Abraham is a father of all monotheist submitters indicating his religion is monotheism being its practice is submission.
Conclusion
The Exodus is a story from the biblical narrative of the Israelites who are the Hebrew people and the descendants of Jacob whose another name is Israel leaving Egypt to their settlement in Canaan, a promised land for Abraham and his descendants. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were established after the events of the Exodus. The establishment of the unified and later divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah occurred in the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, after the period of the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan.
The Gospel first time used the term “Jew” in John 4:9, while the people of the city of Antioch first used the term “Christians” to refer to Jesus’ followers, as recorded in Acts 11:26. The term was coined by these non-believers to describe the disciples in Antioch who were “called Christians”. Thus both the terms “Jew” and “Christian” are invented, while both the religions “Judaism” and Christianity are aligned with these invented terms.
In the Quran there is mention of a religion of Abraham, which is monotheism and its practice is submission naming him a father of all monotheist submitters, while there are references of the different ethnic groups in the Quran not aligning them to any religions but if they believe in God and Last Day and do the righteous deeds will be rewarded in the Hereafter.
From the scriptural point of view there is no religion of Judaism and Christianity except the concept to maintain the distinct separate religious parties avoiding practices of monotheism given by God as confirmed in the Quran. While it may not be acceptable to those who have made the comparative study of the Bible and the Quran to know the truth that Jesus was a Jew and practiced Judaism his entire life, and he launched a movement within Judaism centered on the kingdom of God, leading to the separation of Christianity as a distinct religion after his death, and Abraham did not belong to a religion with the name it has today, but he was the first monotheist and the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and in the Bible, he is presented as the foundational figure for the Jewish people, recognized for his obedience to God and his role in establishing the monotheistic veneration of God, even it may seem truth to many.
Peaceful Friday, salaam and God.
Tafazzal (09/12/2025)