Abstract
Classical Muslim exegetes, drawn from both Quranic and non-Quranic sources, have described the exodus as an illustration of divine punishment imposed on the Israelites for their transgression against God. This study, however, understands the Quranic accounts of the exodus in terms of a salvational drama. The revelation of Torah, central to the exodus story, is about the deliverance of God’s will in the act of law giving. Moses as both a prophet and a legislator plays a key role in manifesting God as the word in the citation of an authentic divine intention through the Torah. Divine presence is also found through miracles when God orders Moses to return the sea to its original form, and so the Israelites would be saved from Pharaoh. For their lack of gratitude for God’s help, the Israelites are punished for their transgression against his command. In 5:20–25, God commands the Israelites to enter the “holy land,” but they refuse because of giants. In turn, God condemns the Israelites with 40 years of wandering (5:26). In 7:148–158 and 20:80–98 the Israelites are described to transgress God’s command for worshiping the golden calf when Moses was absent for 40 nights. In turn, Moses orders the killing of those who worshiped the golden calf. However, while the Israelites are punished for their disobedience, they are also blessed with God’s mercy and generosity. When Moses’s anger subsides after throwing down the tables after finding the Israelites worshiping of the golden calf, he took up the tablets for “those who fearful of their Lord” (7:154). Throughout the Quran, the exodus narrative provides numerous instances when God would provide numerous blessings to the Israelites. Beyond punishment and blessing, however, the exodus identifies a metanarrative of spiritual liberation. In such account, the Israelites partake in a redemptive experience of a trial through adversity that ultimately reveals divine grace, a self-reflexive reference that unravels the God it cites into existence, and hence a promise for salvation. The exodus story therefore becomes a chronicle about God’s presence in the enactment of his will through the performance of delivering the laws, even as he appears to abandon his people, even as he appears to be invisible to all.
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Notes
- 1.
In the Quran, Jesus explains, “I shall confirm the Torah that was before me, and will make lawful for you some of the things that were before unlawful for you.” (3:50).
- 2.
Here, my argument is similar to Thomas Dozeman’s account of exodus as a salvation history. See Dozeman 2010.
- 3.
It maybe interesting to note that in contrast to the Biblical account of the bush the Quran describes a burning tree.
- 4.
The Quranic distinction between magic and miracles is articulated in 17:101–103: “To Moses we gave ten clear signs. Ask the Israelites. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him: ‘I consider you, Moses, to be affected by magic.’ He [Moses] said: ‘You know that these things have been sent down only the lord of the heavens and the earth as something to behold. I consider you, Pharaoh, to be doomed.”
- 5.
Wensinck argues that base of the fist verse is the Alexander romance story. According to the Alexander romance, the dried fish becomes alive when Alexander’s cook washes it in the spring of life (Wensinck 1978: 902–903). Wheeler has correctly criticized Wensinck and Biblical scholars such as Israel Friedländer by arguing that the source of the fish episode based on the Alexander stories was alluded later in history by Muslim commentators of the Quran and that, historically speaking, it is incorrect to assume that the Quranic verses were based on this story (See Wheeler 2002a: 10–19 and also Wheeler 1998: 195–196).
- 6.
According to Abu al-Hajjaj Mujahid (d. 722), a famous Quranic commentator under in the Ummayd period, the Promised Land, also known as “holy land” in Islamic literature, was Mount Sinai and its surrounding areas.
- 7.
“And decree for us in this world [that which is] good and [also] in the Hereafter; indeed, we have turned back to you. [Allah] said, my punishment—I afflict with it whom I will, but my mercy encompasses all things.” (7:156).
- 8.
“And Moses chose from his people 70 men for our appointment. And when the earthquake seized them, he said, "My Lord, if you had willed, you could have destroyed them before and me [as well]. Would you destroy us for what the foolish among us have done? This is not but your trial by which you send astray whom you will and guide whom you will. You are our protector, so forgive us and have mercy upon us; and you are the best of forgivers (7: 155).
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Rahimi, B. (2015). The Exodus in Islam: Citationality and Redemption. In: Levy, T., Schneider, T., Propp, W. (eds) Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective. Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04768-3_28
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