The Islamic Perspective

by circumstances to reach Egypt, he was ultimately given a high post in the country’s government by the reigning king (one of the Hiksos dynasty), impressed by his capabilities. After his position was consolidated in Egypt, Joseph invited his family, including his father Jacob, to leave Palestine for Egypt. Once settled in Egypt, his people multiplied and gradually became a powerful racial group in the country of their adoption. In the years following Joseph’s ascendancy, a political revolution in Egypt established a new dynasty that supplanted the Hiksos kings. They adopted the title ‘Pharaoh.’ Under these new rulers, the Israelites were subjected to oppression until the advent of Moses, who succeeded in leading the Israelites out of Egypt into the Sinai desert. This was the first stage of their journey. The second stage of their journey was to enter Palestine and settle there in their former homeland. During the time of Moses, that is, in the time of the ancient Jewish Diaspora, the plan for these exiled Jews to return to their former homeland was made at the behest of God. In modern times, the plan to return the exiled Jews of the Diaspora was executed in terms of the Balfour Declaration.