Prophet Ya’qub [Jacob] was nearly killed

Prophet Ya’qub [Jacob] was nearly killed & he later built the house of Allah-“Dome of the Rock”

“And remember Our[Allah] servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-those of strength and [religion] vision. Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home[of the Hereafter]. And indeed they are, to Us, among the chosen and outstanding.” --- Qur’an chapter 38 verses 45-47

Prophet Ishaq was the second [apart from Prophet Ismael]most popular sons of Prophet Ibrahim. He lived for 180 years. He died after the disappearance of his grandson, Prophet Yusif [coming later], for 13 years. His two sons, ‘Issu and Ya’qub buried him inside the cave, where Prophet Ibrahim and his wife Sarah were buried.

The people of the book [Jews] narrated that, Prophet Ishaq married Rafqaa, daughter of Batwabeel, she was barren and he prayed to Allah to bless her with children. Allah answered and gave her twins- the older was named ‘Issu, whom the Arabs called “Al-‘ess”. He was the great grandfather of Romans in Europe. And the second was named Ya’qub or Israel, who was the ancestor of the children of Israel[the Jews]. However, Prophet Ishaq used to love ‘Issu dearly because he was the older, while their mother showered her love upon Ya’qub because he was the younger one.

So when Ishaque grew up and lost his eye sight, he once requested his elder son, ‘Issu to bring him a roasted hunted meat, so he will bless him and pray for him. And ‘Issu was already a hunter, so he left to the bush to look for an animal to slaughter. Right after he left, his mother asked Ya’qub to go and slaughter two of his best animals and prepare food with it for his father before his brother comes back, so he will pray for him. Having done as she requested from him, the mother put his brother’s[‘Issu] dress on him, with new animal skin which had fur on them, because unlike Ya’qub, ‘Issu was someone with so much hair on his skin, so she could disguise her husband from making him out. So when he brought the food to his father he asked: Who are you? And he said your son[without mentioning his name]. So he embraced him and keep on saying, the voice is that of Ya’qub, while the cloth and the skin is for ‘Issu. So when he ate and finished, he prayed upon Ya’qub for Allah to bless him and grant him more wealth and children.

However , little did he leave his father, then came his brother ‘Issu with the meat that the father asked him to go and prepare for him. Ishaq asked him: What is this my son? He replied: This is the food that you told me you desired. And the father said: Didn’t you bring it a while ago and I ate it already and prayed for you? He said: “La walahi!”, no by Allah! And he then realized it was his brother Ya’qub [who was not asked to do that] who overtook him. And he got so much aggravated at his brother, and vowed to kill him when their father dies. But nevertheless, he requested another prayer from his father and he prayed a different prayer for him - For Allah to make his family dominate the worldly affairs. And to increase their wealth and resources on earth [So they did, because Rome had wielded influence in the global geopolitical and economic trends over a long period of time].

Ya’qub Migrated to Haraan

So when their mother heard about the intention of ‘Issu to kill his younger brother[the most beloved to her] Ya’qub, she advised him to migrate and settle with her brother, his uncle[Labaan] in the city of Haraan. And should stay with him permanently until when his brother’s range and resentment towards him would be neutralized.

She also urged him to marry one of his cousin[daughter of his uncle]. She also told his father Prophet Ishaq to add his voice by praying for him and encouraging him to fulfill this marital obligation with one of his cousins, and he did.

The dream that led to the establishment of “Masjidil Aqsa”-[Dome of the Rock]

So Ya’qub set off on his way to Haraan in late evening and the night begun to set in, and he laid down and placed a stone under his head and fell asleep. Little did he begin to sleep, he saw in his dream a huge gate opened between the heaven and earth and suddenly saw the Angels climbing up and descending down, while Allah the Almighty was addressing him directly, saying: “Inni sa Ubaarik ‘aliaka wa Aktharu zurriyatak, wa aj’alu laka haazihil ard wali ‘aqibaka min ba’dika.” That: “I will bless you and multiply your progeny [great grandchildren] and will make you and your subsequent generations inherit[the treasures of] this earth.”

So when he woke up from his sleep he became so excited about what he saw in his dream. It was then and there that he vowed to Allah that should He grants him safe journey to his family, he would built a place of worship for Allah the Exalted and Al-mighty at this very spot, and he would allocate ten percent of whatever resources He would bless him with.

He then climbed on top of that rock that he slept under and placed an identification mark and named it: “Baitil Ieel”,, “House of Allah”. And became the landmark of “Baitil Maqdis” or “Dome of the Rock”, [Al-Aqsa Mosque] or “The Farthest Mosque”, which he [Ya’qub] built later.

Ya’qub’s Marriage to two of his cousins who gave him Prophet Yusif & many children

Historians further narrated that: When Ya’qub arrived at his uncle’s town Haraan, he noticed that he had two daughters. The older one was called “Liya” and the younger one “Raheel”. So he asked Raheel’s hand in marriage, as she was more beautiful than her sister. Haraan accepted on the condition that, Ya’qub would have to be a shepherd for his flocks for seven years. So when he fulfilled the condition after seven years, his uncle and father-in-law to-be, Labaan prepared food and invited people to eat and make merry. During the late evening, he asked their mother to prepare [beautify] the older sister [Liya] rather, who had bad eye-sight and was kind of ugly to be sent to Ya’qub as his wife.

However, when Ya’qub woke up in the morning, he realized it was Liya, Raheel’s older sister, he then went and asked his uncle[father-in-law]: Why have you deceived me? I requested Raheel in marriage, not her older sister. And he replied him saying: It is not in our sunnah [culture] to get younger daughters married before their senior sisters, so if you still love her younger sister, work for me for seven more years and I will give Raheel to you as well to be your second wife. He then worked for seven years, and upon finishing, Ya’qub took Raheel to him as second wife. And he gave each one of them a slave girl to help in their home chores.

However, this practice was later scraped from norms and canons in the Torah, making it impossible for the subswquent generations of Ya’qub to marry two sisters from the same family.

But in spite of Liya’s deficiency, Allah blessed her with his first son, Raubeel, then came Sham’un, then Lawee and then Yahuza. Raheel then became jealous, because she could not conceive by then. So she gave her slave girl, Balha to her husband to marry, he consummated her after the marriage and she conceived and later delivered a baby boy which he named Daniel and later another baby by name Neeftalee.

It became like a competition between the two wives, because her sister, the first wife, even though already had four children with him, she also gave him her slave girl in marriage, and the girl had delivered three children for Y’aqub. But Liya also had three more children later, making seven, including a girl, which her last was born, named Deena.

Having been so worried with her infertility at this point, Raheel prayed to Allah to give her a son with Ya’qub and Allah answered her prayer when she conceived and delivered a very handsome baby boy and was named Yusif, Joseph, who would later inherit his father as one of the Prophets of Allah.

All these events happened as they were in Haraan, while Ya’qub was still rearing the flocks of his uncle and father-in-law as his bride price and he would work for him for six more years, thereby staying in Haraan for 20 years.

Ya’qub migrated back to his home country with his wives and chilren

Within some years later, Allah had commanded him to go back to his family home country. So he informed his family members about it and evacuated all of them with his wealth and flocks. Raheel, the second wife stole her father’s idols and had it hidden in her leader back. His uncle, Labaan however chased him/them on the way and criticized him for leaving without informing him, so he would have send them off with an entourage of drummers and singers, as a farewell ceremony for his daughter and their children.

But he however asked him for his idols, which had feeling was taken by one of them. Since Ya’qub did not know about his father-in-law’s idols, and did not see his wife[Raheel] picking them, he denied the possibility of the idols being in their possession. So Labaan entered his daughters’ house and searched thoroughly and could not find anything. Raheel, his daughter had hidden it inside a small skin back, loaded on one of her camels. So he left them to go since he could not find the them[idols].

How Ya’qub finally smoked a peace pipe with his brother ‘Issu

When Ya’qub approached the town closer to the town of “Sa’eer”, some angels met him and welcomed him upon arrival. He then sent one of his servants to his brother ‘Issu to serve and obey him.

The servant however returned and informed him that, his brother has prepared a huge army to attack him and his family. He got scared from this threat and therefore prayed to Allah to protect him. He however, prepared a huge consignment of flocks to be donated to ‘Issu, with the hope that he would smoke the peace pipe with him. This comprised of: 100 sheep, 20 goats, 100 camels, 20 rams, 30 milk-producing camels, 20 cows etc. And he ordered his servants to move all these flocks to his brother, ‘Issu. And each one should keep a distance from the other, so when ‘Issu would ask them: Who owns these flocks, they should say it is for Ya’qub your servant and he donated them to master ‘Issu, and he would be behind us coming to you.

When Ya’qub got near to his brother’s place, he raised his eyes and saw his brother ‘Issu in entourage of four hundred men. He advanced in front of his family and prostrated to him seven times, which was how they used great their masters during that time. It was popular among them, justice like how the Angels prostrated to Prophet Adam and how the brothers of Prophet Yusif also prostrated to him[the details will be elicited next week when this series dwell on the narrative of Prophet Yusif, Ya’qub’s handsome son].

So when ‘Issu saw him in this situation, he came closer to him and embraced and hugged him, crying. ‘Issu raised his eyes and saw many women and children and said: Where do you come with all these people? And he answered him saying, these are all what Allah granted to your servant [referring to himself], and all of them moved closer and prostrated to him. So at this point, he accepted the donation from his brother, who then move with his family to the mountain range of “Sa’eer”.

Later in the years, the mother of Yusif, Raeel conceived again for Prophet Ya’qub and he was named “Bunyameen”, or Benyamin but she unfortunately had a difficult labor and died after delivery. Ya’qub buried her in “Afrath”, kind of slaughter house. He placed a rock to serve as a point of identification of her grave for generations to come.

Ya’qub then came back to his father, and settled with him in the village of Hebron, which was the land of Kannan, where Prophet Ibrahim used to live. So later, their father, Ishaq fell sick and died at the age of 180. And Ya’qub and his senior brother ‘Issu [who wanted to kill him but changed his mind after huge donation by his brother] buried him close to the grave of his father and their grandfather Prophet Ibrahim.

History has it that, because there was no one left from Ya’qub’s tribe to care for the place of worship, Ya’qub, intrusted care of Masjid Al-Aqsa to the then natives of the area, the Palestinians. This was acceptable due to the fact that the natives were also followers of the Prophet Ibrahim. But in reality, the Israelites remained in Egypt for four hundred years as slaves to the Egyptians with no connection to Palestine, the land from which they immigrated.

The actual Dome of the Rock or Masjidul Aqsa which was originally built by Prophet Ya’qub as stated above.

Husseini Yushau BabalWaiz, is the Research & Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives Inc. New York, Author of three books, including "Islam Promotes Tolerance & Prohibits Terrorism-Reviving the Islamic Advocacy of Mercy and Magnanimity to Mankind" & Tutor in Arabic & Islamic Studies in New York, babalwaiz71@gmail.com.

NB: Folks, this is the thirteen in the new series entitled: "Delving Deep Inside the Islamic Historic Memory Lane", which will be running for months, even years, aimed at showcasing the amazing historical phenomena that happened in the pre and post Islamic world. Next week, our series will focus on the people of Prophet Yusif or Joseph.

So please read, comment, forward and share to as many people as possible on social media.

References:

Al-Muntazam-Fii Tareekhil Umam Wal-Mulook, [Periodicals on the History of [medieval] Societies & Kingdoms] by, Abil Faraj, Abdul Rahman Bun Aliyi Bun Muhammad Ibnil Jawzi. vol. [1] of [10] vols.

Qisasil Qur'an-Min Adam Alihi Salamu Ilaa Ashabul Feel[Tales of the Qur'an- From Adam Peace be upon Him to the Companions of the Elephants], by, Dr. Muhammad Bakr Ismael

Qisasil Anbiyah,[Tales of the Prophets] by Abil Fadah, Imam Hafiz Ibn Kathir