Jacob was the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham. His mother’s name was Rebecca. He was born twenty years after the marriage of his parents. He was nicknamed Israel, a Hebrew word formed by combining Isra and El. Isra means “servant,” and El is a name for God. Thus, it means “Servant of God,” which is equivalent to Abdullah in Arabic. In the Holy Qur’an, he is referred to as Asbat, meaning a tree with many branches.
He was the younger of twin brothers. His elder twin brother was Esau, who had a hairy body and a reddish complexion. His nickname was Edom, and his descendants formed a large tribe known as the Children of Edom. Jacob was brought up in Canaan under the direct supervision of his father Isaac.
By profession, he was a shepherd, just like his forefathers. Isaac knew that God had chosen Jacob to carry on the mission of guiding humanity, so he loved Jacob more than Esau. Esau was a skilled hunter who used to bring meat for his father and serve him roasted game.
Once, when Isaac wished to eat something special, Esau went hunting. Meanwhile, Jacob prepared a meal at home and served it to his father, who ate it heartily and blessed him with his prayers. When Esau returned and learned that his father had already eaten, he became grieved. Satan misled him into thinking that the blessing given to Jacob rightfully belonged to him. In anger, he quarreled with Jacob. As the situation became tense, Jacob’s mother sent him to her brother Laban in Haran to avoid further conflict. Esau, feeling even more distressed, went to his uncle Ishmael and married his daughter. Later, when both brothers were settled in life, they reconciled and loved each other like true brothers.
Jacob’s maternal uncle Laban had two daughters. He made an agreement with Jacob that if he would herd his sheep for ten years, he could marry his daughter Leah. When Jacob fulfilled the term and wished to marry Rachel instead, Laban reminded him of the tradition that the younger daughter could not marry before the elder. Laban told him to marry Leah and then serve seven more years if he wished to marry Rachel.
Jacob agreed and, one after the other, married both sisters. Besides Leah and Rachel, he also married Bilhah and Zilpah. From Leah, he had four sons. Since Rachel remained childless for a time, she gave her maidservant Bilhah to Jacob, and she bore him two sons. Then he had two sons from Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant. After that, Leah gave birth to two more sons and one daughter. Finally, Rachel gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin. Thus, Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter.
When Jacob returned to Palestine from Padan-aram, his uncle Laban bid him farewell with abundant wealth and flocks. Benjamin was born in Palestine. During Jacob’s time, a king named Saljam ruled Canaan. Jacob invited him to worship God and follow the straight path, but the king and his people ignored his preaching and were destroyed by an earthquake.
Jacob’s Twelve Sons
Jacob was blessed with twelve sons, but he loved Joseph the most for his beauty and his unique abilities. Joseph’s brothers disliked this favoritism. One day, in their jealousy, they conspired and threw Joseph into a deserted well in the wilderness. They returned home and falsely told their father that a wolf had devoured him. Although Jacob knew they were not telling the truth, he bore the grief with patience and forbearance.
He remembered Joseph so deeply and wept so much that he lost his eyesight.
Meanwhile, a trade caravan discovered Joseph in the well and brought him to Egypt. Through divine arrangement, Joseph eventually rose to the highest position in Egypt, and the Pharaoh appointed him as ruler.
Later, when Joseph invited his father to Egypt, Jacob migrated there with seventy family members. At that time, he was one hundred and thirty years old and lived in Egypt for another seventeen years. Joseph provided them land in the fertile region of Ramees. Before his death, Jacob gathered his children and advised them to worship God, as their forefathers Jacob, Isaac, Ishmael, and Abraham had done.
Were you witnesses when death approached Jacob? Behold, he said to his sons, “What will you worship after me?” They said, “We shall worship your God and the God of your fathers—Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac—the One True God. And to Him we bow in submission.”
(Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:133)
Jacob lived for one hundred and forty-seven years. When he died, Joseph carried his body to Canaan and buried him beside Sarah, Rebecca, and Isaac, according to his will.
Point to Note
The stories narrated in the Holy Qur’an invite us to reflect on the mindset and spiritual disposition of the prophets. When we study the lives of Isaac and Jacob, we see that their outlook was marked by gratitude and forbearance. When they received blessings, they were grateful. When a blessing was withheld, they did not fall into despair or complain. They submitted themselves entirely to the will of God and sought divine wisdom in every event. Despite being endowed with miraculous abilities, they did not use them to manipulate events in their favor. Instead, they prayed to God with humility for steadfastness and patience.
Jacob exemplified forbearance and patience throughout his life. When his sons separated him from Joseph, despite knowing the truth, he remained silent and accepted it as God’s will. He wept for his son out of love but never uttered a word of complaint or disobedience.
The lives of prophets are living examples of the mindset that everything comes from God. Both prophets and their spiritual inheritors, the Auliya, embody this perspective in which detachment is the core principle. To develop this way of thinking, they trained their minds to turn towards God in every situation. They firmly believed that they had no independent connection to anything in this world. Their connection to everything was solely through God, who is the Lord and Master of all creation, including themselves. Gradually, their minds developed the habit of thinking of God before engaging with anything, and they consistently held the realization that nothing had a direct link with them apart from God’s will.
In this way, every movement of their minds was filled with awareness of God. God became the living object of their focus. As this habit took root, their minds became infused with the Attributes of God, and they became reflections of those Attributes.
Those who attain this level of thought possess a faith that is free from doubt or uncertainty. They truly believe that everything in the world, whether joyful or difficult, is from God. This belief becomes so deeply rooted that it transforms into an observable state. They begin to see that everything that exists, has happened, or will happen is directly connected to God.
All things exist and manifest as they do because they exist in the knowledge of God. Those who are firm in knowledge develop a way of thinking in which every act, intention, or need is attributed solely to God. They hold with certainty that the blessings destined for them will reach them without fail, and this conviction establishes in them the spiritual state known as Detachment.
Definition of Detachment
Detachment cannot be achieved without certitude and faith, and certitude and faith are not complete without inner spiritual observation. A person who lacks Detachment remains entangled in material attachments and is more connected to the world than to God.
The mind of a person who lacks Detachment is filled with uncertainty, wavering thoughts, and irrational fears. Anxiety about the future gnaws at them constantly, and they rarely reflect on the blessings they have received in the past.
A newborn child is helpless. He cannot turn himself, grasp objects, or walk. Others do everything for him. His mother feeds him, bathes him, and changes his clothes. Gradually, day by day, he passes through infancy, childhood, and youth until he reaches old age. He learns, earns a living, marries, raises children, and eventually becomes a grandparent. In old age, his children serve him. Yet, when he thinks about the future, he becomes anxious and forgets that for over sixty years—more than twenty-one thousand days—God has continuously provided for him. Why should God’s favors stop now?
Those who understand Detachment are convinced that man is no more than a toy in the hands of divine circumstances. Like a toy wound up by a child, a person is set in motion by the conditions and situations determined by God. God alone is the Guardian, the Protector, and the Sovereign of the key that winds this toy.