The story of the Children of Israel in the Qur'an

Sha'rawi holds that God chose the story of the Children of Israel because it has the most miracles and prophets, and because they were the most disobedient of peoples, so they were also the people with the most prophets ¹. He reads the favour God reminds them of as the rescue of their sons from slaughter, which he holds greater than mere rescue from punishment ^{4 6}.

He says the story takes its space because it strengthens the Prophet ﷺ and the believers, and that Musa was a messenger of resolve whose story includes training ¹. See al-Baqara 40.

He explains that the name Israel is Ya'qub, and that the name carries the sense of choosing after trial, and he holds that God reminds them of their father's testament at his death ^{7 8}. See al-Baqara 132.

He distinguishes two words for rescue: one is deliverance from punishment already falling, the other is keeping punishment entirely away ^{9 10}. He relates that Pharaoh ordered the male infants killed after a dream and the soothsayers' warning, then made it a practice in alternate years, and says Harun was born in a year without slaughter ⁴. See al-Qasas 4.

He relates the crossing, the parting of the sea, and God's command to leave the sea as it was so that the people of Pharaoh would follow and then drown. He says some reports give six hundred thousand for the Children of Israel and a million for Pharaoh's army; these reports have not been checked ^{11 12 5}. See al-Baqara 50.

He reads the verses of al-Isra about two corruptions and a later return as applying to the present time, and holds that the al-Aqsa mosque will return to the Muslims after it was lost to them. This is his own reading, presented as his view ^{2 3}. It is a contemporary political reading by its author; it is not endorsed, not weighed, and not checked here.

This is Sha'rawi's reading. The Hyksos link he states has not been checked. The contemporary reading of al-Isra is not checked or endorsed. No accounts from the Children of Israel's own tradition or from other traditions are set out here, and none is checked.