Sacred Texts
Islam
Index
Previous
Next
Jacob and Joseph
(PUT)
Jacob
is the son of Isaac ben Abraham, the friend of God, and his mother is Rebecca
(Rebekah) the daughter of Bethuel, and his mother gave birth to him with
a brother of his that is Esau [Arabic: Al-`Ays] and his name in Torah is
`Eesu [`Esav], so Esau and Jacob are twins and born together, with Esau
coming first then Jacob, and their mother is Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel
ben Terah ben Nahor ben Serug, and the marriage of Rebecca and Isaac was
mentioned before in the doscussion of the conditions of Isaac. Some historians
said that then happened some conflict and hate between the two and Esau
hated Jacob, and they say that Esau used to like hunting and had a strong
soul, and his brother Jacob was a gentle man with manners and patience
with faith so his mother Rebecca loved him so much and been afraid that
Esau would hurt him with his wrath, and always been afraid that he would
be killed by him so she suggested for him to go to his uncle Laban ben
Bethuel ben Terah ben Nahor, so he went to Iraq to Padan-Aram and stayed
with his uncle and under his service, then his uncle gave him his daughter
Leah [Arabic: Liyyâ, Hebrew: Le'ah] for marriage and he had six children
from her: Rawbeen, Sham`un, Lâwi, Yahuðâ,
Riyâlun and Yashjob [in Torah they are actually seven: Reuben, Simeon,
Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah, the first four names are exact
translation of the names mentioned in Arabic, but the others are not so
close in spelling], and then Leah died so he got married to her sister
Raheel (Rachel) and she gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin, and he got also
four children from two other maids, one of them is called Zilfah (Zilpah)
and the other called Bilhah, and as mentioned in Torah that Bilhah is a
handmaid of Rachel and gave her to Jacob so he got two children from her,
Dan and Naphtali, and Zilpah is the handmaid of Leah and also gave her
to Jacob and so he got two children from her, Gad and Asher, and so the
children of Jacob are twelve males as mentioned in the stories of Abdul-Wahâb
Al-Najjâr, although there are some differences in the names of the
children of Jacob between Torah and as mentioned by Abdul-Wahâb Al-Najjâr,
but their number is agreeable by all that they are twelve males, and it
might be apparent that all the children were born in Padan-Aram in Iraq
while he (Jacob) was with his uncle Laban taking care of his cattles, then
he got back to the land of Canaan in the lands of Shem with lot of money
and fortune, and when he got back he gave his brother some while he was
afraid that he would kill him but his brother Esau met him with a nice
face and gentleness. They say that the children born in Iraq were only
eleven except of Benjamin that was born in the land of Canaan. God did
say: The same did Abraham enjoin upon his sons, and also Jacob,
(saying): O my sons! Lo! Allah hath chosen for you the (true) religion;
therefore die not save as men who have surrendered, Or were ye present
when death came to Jacob (unto Him)(Al-Baqarah:132-133), and as attributed
to Al-Bâqir (PUH): and Jacob was give the prophecy in the land of
Canaan then went to Egypt and died there and then his body was carried
back to the land of Canaan and buried there.
In Muruj Al-Ðahab for Al-Mas`udi:
Isaac then ordered his son Jacob to go to the lands of Shem and told him
that he got the prophecy along with his twelve children and they are: Lâwi,
Yahuða, Yessâkhir, Bolon, Yousef, Binyâmin, Dân,
Naftâli, Kân, Eshâr, Sham`un and Rubeel [this list seems
closer to the names in Torah: Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin,
Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Simeon, Reuben], and prophecy with power had
been made into four of them: Levi, Judah, Joseph and Benjamin. Then he
said: then Jacob been afraid a lot of his brother Esau and God made him
safe from him, and Jacob had five thousand and five hundred sheeps, and
Jacob gave the tenth of that for his brother Esau to prevent his evil after
that God made him safe away from him, so God punished him in his children
for not holding to his oath and God inspired to him: did not you believe
in My promise to you? Then I will make the children of Esau rule your children
for five hundred and fifty years, and that was the time period by which
Romans took hold of Jerusalem and destroyed the temples and made the Israelites
as slaves until the time of Omar ben Al-Khattâb [second caliphate
for Sunnites] when he invaded Jerusalem.
Next: About Calling Jacob as Israel