Prophet Yaqub [Jacob] (Peace be upon him)
He (Yaqub) said: "I only complain of my distraction and anguish to Allah, and I know from Allah that which ye know not. (Yusuf, 86)
Hz. Yaqub and Children of Israel
As it is known, when Hz. Ibrahim died, Hz. Ismail, one of his sons, became a prophet in Makkah and Hz. Ishaq, another son of his, became a prophet in Kenan. Hz. Ishaq had two sons: one of them was Ays and the other one was Yaqub. Ays settled in Damascus while Yaqub stayed in Kenan. He was given the duty of prophethood by Allah there. Hz. Yaqub called people to obey and worship Allah for fifty years. He is also one of the restorers of Masjid al-Aqsa after the Prophet Nuh (Noah).1
The Prophet Yaqub married Layya, his maternal uncle's daughter first. He married Rahil, the younger daughter of his uncle, after that. He had sons called Rubil, Yahuza, Shemun and Lawi form Layya; He had sons called Yusuf and Bunyamin (Benjamin) from Rahil.
When Layya and Rahil married the Prophet Yaqub, their father, Laban, gave a woman slave to each. They gave these women slaves to their husband, Yaqub, so that they would give birth to sons. He had three sons from each of these two women slaves. Thus, he had twelve sons altogether.2
The youngest and cutest son of Hz. Yaqub was Yusuf. When he was little, all of the members of the family including his elder brothers loved him very much.
Hz. Yaqub’s nickname was Israel. Therefore, his sons were called "Banu Israel" (Children of Israel). The nation that came from their progeny and Hz Musa (Moses) was sent as a prophet to was known as Children of Israel; finally, a state called Israel was founded in the last century.
The clan of each of them was called "sibt", which meant grandchild; they were called "asbat" (grandchildren) as a whole. In several verses of the Quran, they are referred to as "asbat".3
The incidents of the Prophet Yaqub's going to Egypt with his family, begging Allah for his guilty children, giving his last will to his children and his death will be included in the life of Hz. Yusuf in the next chapter.
FOOTNOTES
1 M. Asım Köksal, ibid. p. 267.
2 ibid. p. 264.
3 al-Baqara, 136.
- They say Hz. Yaqub married the older daughter of his maternal uncle. When his wife died, he married his wife's sister. Is that in true?
- Prophet Yusuf [Joseph] (Peace be upon him)
- Prophet Musa [Moses] & Harun [Aaron] (Peace be upon them)
- Will you give information about the pedigrees of prophets and their order of coming?
- Prophet Ayyub [Job] (Peace be upon him)
- In some verses, it is stated that "ghayb (the unseen, the unknown) cannot be known by anyone except Allah. How can it be explained under the light of these verses that some prophets and saints give news about the future?
- In the verse which Allah addressed Jews as, “He gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples” (al-Maida 20), what are the things that Allah did not give to any people and why did he give them to Jews?
- Is it not contrary to equality that Hz. Yaqub loved his son Hz. Yusuf more than his other sons?
- Is Azar the father of Hazrat Ibrahim (pbuh)?
- What is the real nature of the prostration before Hz. Yusuf mentioned in verse 100 of the chapter of Yusuf?