ranslated by Fatima Zabeth Beenesh from the Farsi book "Tarikh i-Anbiya az Adam ta Khatam" by Husain Imadzadeh
There are ten ayaat present in the Holy Quran about Prophet Is’haq a.s. He was the son of Sara and Ibrahim a.s and the forefather of Bani israil. Jibril a.s gave him the glad tiding that 1000 prophets by the status of Mursil ( the prophets sent on mission) will arise from his lineage and one of them was Musa a.s. Is’haq a.s himself was the prophet Mursil and he was living in the lands of Palestine and was born after some years of the birth of Ismail a.s.
On the seventh day of his birth he was circumcised and when grown up got married to a girl from Babul by the name Baqa. Is’haq a.s after the death of Ismail a.s became the prophet and at the age of forty he got the mission from his father to invite the people of Kan’an and Palestine towards the one God and Monotheism and he resided at Syria. At the time of his death he was 180 years old and buried near his father in Qudus Khalil in 1982 BC.
Like his mother Is’haq was very beautiful and pleasant looking. He appealed to be slaughtered but was ordered to be patient. Some had mistaken him as a great slaughtered Zabih Azeem but the great slaughtered was Ismail a.s not the Is’haq a.s..The tribe of Bani Israil was from his generation.
Hazrat YAQUB ‘Jacob’(Alaihissalam)
3483 years after Habuth (the descend of Adam from Heaven)
Yaqub a.s bin Is’haq a.s bin Ibrahim a.s was mentioned in Quran in the following chapters: Sur e Baqara ayat 131-134, Sur Al e Imran 84, Nisa 126, Sur e An’am 84, Sur e Anbia 72, Sur e Ankabut 27, Sur e Hud 74, Sur e Yusuf 68, 38, 6, Sur e Maryam 49, 5, Sur e Sad 45.
Hazrat Yaqub bin Is’haq bin Ibrahim a.s was among the high ranked prophets of God who spend most of his life in worshipping God. When he reached the age of adulthood he cited in his dream a house of lights, with the stairs of Gold and silver. An angel descended from there and declared: Your God ordered you to leave this city and go to the city of Haraan where a king by the name Labaan is ruling over there, go and propose his daughter Rahila for marriage and from her the God will increase your generation like the drops of rains and the leaves of the jungle and He will support you in this world and here after. This is the promise of your God which will not be violated.
Is’haq a.s loved his son Yaqub a.s very much but it was hurting their brothers and they were teasing their brother and making the life of Yaqub a.s miserable, they made him so much helpless that he was compelled to migrate. He solicited permission from his mother to leave so that to go towards the Haraan the lands of Babul where his maternal uncle was living. He lived there for some time then from there he went to the city of Nur. A period of time had passed this way and he went to Haraan and reached a well and saw Rahila there.
An angel guided him towards the palace of Haraan. The king of that place was sleeping, he saw in his dream that a man is proposing to marry his daughter. His sign is that he will singly lift up the heavy stone of the well which was used to be lifted up by 40 men and after fetching out the water from well he will pray namaz there.
Meanwhile Yaqub a.s entered the city and went towards the palace of Labaan and reached the well and remembered the greatness of God and raised the stone and lifted a pail of water and filled the pond with the water, performed his ablutions and stood for the prayers.
The king of Haraan roused up from his sleep and watched the Yaqub a.s from upstairs and stepped down and went towards him. He greeted him Salam and invited him to enter his palace and made him his guest for a period of time and gifted him 200 sheep, 40 cows and honoured him to great extent. It was the tradition of Arabs besides hospitality they used to give presents to the guests. They were mostly possessing sheep, horse and camel which was their much precious commodity and their life was depended upon these animals. Besides they owned Dirham, Dinar, gold, silver and ornaments.
In the Arabia water was immensely precious for the people. The king Labaan was influential in his kingdom due to this well of water which he was excavated and covered it with a heavy stone. 40 mighty men were able to lift it up to uncover the well and its pail was also very much massive, many men were holding it to fill the water in the pond. Those who pass through the area of Ramal know the importance of the wells in the Arabian Peninsula. Hence water was of vital important for them and the people were going through humility and fear for getting the water.
Labaan was father of 6 daughters and he showed Yaqub a.s his first daughter for marraige. Yaqub a.s was tolerant he did not expressed any thing and accepted her for marriage. She died after a period of a time and Labaan gave his second daughter in marraige to Yaqub a.s and she also died after sometime.
Like this way as one daughter was dying Labaan was giving the younger daughter in the marriage of Yaqub a.s. The last daughter was Rahila who was possessed the beauty of Havva and and Sara. She was very gracious and polite. Rahila gave birth to Yasuf a.s and Banyamin. He was born 2029 before christ (BC) and Rahila passed away after giving birth to Yasuf a.s.
Yaqub a.s from each of these six daughters of Labaan got 2 sons and altogether he got 12 sons.
At the birth of Yausuf, JIbril a.s descended with angels and greeted Yaqub a.s for his new born baby and instructed him to name his baby Yusuf a.s.
Yusuf a.s was endowed with lovely features and he was perfectly charming. JIbril a.s informed the Rahila about the hardships which Yusuf a.s was destined to undergo in future.
Rahila said: I cannot tolerate the sufferings of Yusuf a.s and pray for me to die soon.
And she died after giving birth to Yusuf a.s.
As Yaqub a.s lived a long period in the house of Labaan and got 12 sons by his daughters and he wanted to return back to Kan’an. Labaan requested him to stay back. Yaqub a.s said: I will stay but I will live by earning the wages.
Likewise Yaqub became the shepherd of Labaan on the base of getting the coloured new born sheep and the sheep which was fully white or completely black would be belonged to Labaan and if the lamb was of many colours it was belonged to Yaqub a.s.
While rearing the cattle Yaqub a.s was cutting the fresh and colourful branches from the trees and shaping them into coils and placing before the fat sheep in the manger, a box from which the cattle eat.
The sheep were giving birth to fat, plump and colourful young ones. In a short period of time he owned a large herd of colourful sheep and possessed abundant wealth and slaves. The sons of Labaan began to ill treat Yaqub a.s and said: You had occupied all the sheep and goats of our father.
Hearing this Yaqub a.s left everything there and along with his family he departed for another city. Labaan chased them to return them back but they assigned a deed there on the hill and bid a farewell and Yaqub a.s went to kan’an and Labaan returned to Haraan.
Some historians narrate: The people of Syria were called Banu Kan’an. Syria is called Sham as San bin Nuh a.s was settled there. Sham in Arabic is same as Sam in Hebrew. Banu Kan’an believed that place unfavourable. Kan’an was the son of Mazigh bin Ham bin Nuh a.s. Kan’an constructed the building of Sarh. The city of Kan’an situated between Palestine, Syria and Egypt and it was a place with pleasant weather and abundant vegetation and the kings of Kan’an were called Jaluth there trend continued till Dawood killed Jaluth, the last king. Banu Kan’an because of the brutality of the king were dispersed from that place and migrated to Egypt via Syria and Palestine. A group of them moved towards west they were later called Barbary.
Yaqub a.s after the death of Rahila was stired with sorrow. Jibril a.s descended and said: Almighty God conveyed you Salam and said: The tyrants of the world increased, get up and proceed with your children towards Hindustan. Therefore I will support and assist you and guide the people towards well being and progress.
Yaqub a.s ordered his family to gather the cattle and informed them about the migration. It was very difficult for Labaan to leave them and he called the Yusuf a.s and treated him very kindly which displeased the brothers of Yusuf a.s. They planned and said: We will insult the Yusuf a.s.
Labaan owned a belt of Gold and Yusuf a.s was often playing with it. The brothers concealed the belt of gold in the dresses of Yusuf a.s and said: Yusuf a.s had stolen it and Yaqub a.s felt insulted. Yusuf expressed: Dear father I do not know about it, this is not my fault. Labaan was told in his dream that the children of prophet never steal. He got up and presented the golden belt to Yusuf a.s. Atlast they went to Kan’an and Labaan went to Haraan.
The brothers of Yusuf a.s began to feel jealous upon Yusuf a.s and their prejudice increased day by day. Yaqub a.s left Yusuf a.s to his sister.She used to love him very much and as much as she loved him more, the enmity of brothers was increased more and more.
The names of 12 sons of Yaqub a.s were 1 Ravbeen Bakr 2 Sham’oon 3 Laavi 4 Yahuda who laid the foundation of the city of Isfahan. The Jews from there are the generation of Yahuda. 5 Visakar 6 Zabulun 7 Yusuf a.s by Rahila buried in Syria. 8 Banyamin by Rahila 9 Dan 10 Taftani 11 Haad 12 Ashir.
Yaqub a.s lived for 127 years and resided in Egypt for 17 years. At the time of his death he expressed his last wish to his sons and told them to protect the rules and laws of their religion. He was buried in the ancestral graveyard in the south of the door Bab e oorjad.
