Ep. 03: The House of Ya’qub (AS) | The History of Al Quds

The next portion of our discussion of Bayt Al-Maqdis and Al-Quds has a great deal to do with one family, and that is the family of Ya’qub (AS). It would be good to familiarize ourselves a little bit with Ya’qub (AS) and his family. I mentioned that Ishaq (AS) had two sons, Ya’qub And Esau. Ya’qub (AS) and his brother had a little bit of a falling out due to which his mother asked him to go to Iraq, where his brother Laban lived and spend some time there until his brother’s anger had cooled down, and she also suggests that he get married there if he finds someone suitable. Ya’qub (AS) goes there and he chooses to marry his uncle’s daughter, Rahil, or Rachel. Now, Laban had two daughters; Rachel and Leah. Ya’qub (AS) preferred to marry Rachel, but at the last minute, Laban switched his daughters on him, and when Ya’qub (AS) discovered this and spoke to his father-in-law that “How could you do this?” He said that “I do not follow this pattern of marrying a younger daughter before the elder one, that’s why I gave you the elder one. If you truly want to get married to Rachel, then you will pay a similar amount what you paid for Leah.” So, in another words, “I married you off to Leah, even though you didn’t necessarily want to get married with her, but now you have to stay with her.” The dowry, or the Mahr, that Ya’qub (AS) paid was 7 years of service to his father-in-law. He said, “If you want to marry Rachel then first you fulfill this duty; give me 7 more years as a dowry for my other daughter and you can marry her.” And in their Shari’a it was permissible for a man to marry sisters.

So, Ya’qub (AS) lives his life there in Iraq at his uncle/father-in-law’s place, looks after him, takes care of things, and now he starts having children. Leah gives him first four sons; Rueben, Shim’un or Simon, Lawi, also referred to as Levi, and lastly Judah, or Yahudah. Now, when Laban married each of his daughters off, at a gap of 7 years, he gave each of them 1 slave girl as a gift, so the slave girl that Leah received, her name was Zulfa, or Zilpa, and the slave girl that Rachel received, her name was Bilhah, or Balha. Now, when Rachel sees that she is not able to have children, she gifts her slave girl to Ya’qub (AS) so he can have some children from her, and they would be considered Rachel’s children because she was, after all, Rachel’s slave girl, and Rachel would be in charge and responsible for those children. So, Ya’qub (AS) has 2 sons from Bilhah and when Leah sees this, as for some time she’s unable to have children, Leah gifts her slave girl to Ya’qub (AS) so that she can have some children on her behalf, like as a surrogate mother. So he’s already had Dan and Naphtali from Bilha, so when he receives Zulfa, the slave girl of Leah, then he has Gad and Asher. Meanwhile, Leah is able to conceive again, so she has now two sons, Issachar, also referred to as Yasjar, and another son, Zabulon, or Ziyalun.

Now, there are all of these sons, we have reached a total of 10 sons. Finally, Rachel is able to conceive. I might add in between that some narrations mention, and Ibn Kathir (RA) has affirmed this as well, that Leah also had a daughter from Ya’qub (AS) by the name of Dinah. We’ll talk a little bit about that in just a bit, but in any case, Rachel is finally able to conceive and she gives birth to Yusuf (AS) and then a few years later she gives birth to Binyameen, and she passes away while delivering him. Now, Ya’qub (AS) has spent some 20 years or so looking after his father-in-law’s estate, his animals and so on and so forth, and he decides to come back and this is when he settles in Shecham. He makes up with his brother and he allows them to stay with him, and this is now Aalu Ya’qub (the family of Ya’qub).

Initially, that place that he has settled to, Shecham or Shakheem, as it is referred to in Arabic, there was a person who lived there who kidnapped Dinah. And he kidnapped her and took her and demanded from her brothers that they allow him to marry her. He kept her as a captive and said, “I want you to marry your sister to me.” The brothers came up with a plan – they said, “Okay fine, you can marry her, but first you have to get circumcised. You and all the men that are around you, your commanders and so on, if all of you get circumcised, then we’ll let you marry our sister.” So, that man, incidentally, named Shecham, got himself circumcised, got his men circumcised, and so, while they were there recovering and in pain from this procedure, Ya’qub (AS)’s sons went, killed them all, rescued their sister and brought him back, and we do not hear any other mention about Dinah besides this incident.

I am sure you are very familiar with the story of Yusuf (AS); I’m not going to go into it in a lot of detail but ultimately Yusuf (AS) is thrown into a well, he is the target of the jealousy and the plots of his brothers, they feel that Ya’qub (AS) is giving him excessive attention, and they feel this is going to hurt their interests and harm them in significant ways, so they make up a plan to get rid of him, and Yusuf (AS) is rescued from the well by a passing caravan and he ends up in Egypt. He goes through all of these ordeals with Zulaikha, with going to jail, and then, through his mastery in dream interpretation, Allah (SWT) rescues him from the jail and puts him at the top of Egypt as a ruler and now the same brothers that had plotted against him are coming to him for help and coming to him for food. Some historians say that during the time that Yusuf (AS) had moved to Egypt (decades passed during this), Egyptian rulers had taken over the land of Canaan, that land of Palestine. They had taken it over possibly in an administrative capacity or it was serving as a vassal state for Egypt, and they say that this is why Canaaniyeen had to come to Egypt to seek food. This is something that is mentioned by historians in literature. In any case, after the whole story with his brothers reaches its final conclusion, Yusuf (AS) forgives his brothers and he sends his shirt through one of his brothers to Ya’qub (AS), Ya’qub (AS) by now has become blind, has his eyesight restored, and Yusuf (AS) says “I want you to bring all of your family.” Now, “all of your family” means that these brothers, their wives, their children, Ya’qub (AS), and anyone who is in their family circle, must now come to Egypt; they come to Egypt, Yusuf (AS) honors his parents, treats his brothers with a lot of respect, has them settle down, and in a very short time, these people become the elite class and the ruling class of Egypt.

This is Banu Isra’il. The twelve sons of Ya’qub (AS) and Ya’qub (AS)’s other name is Isra’il. Narrations mention that an angel came and told him “from now on, you will be called Isra’il.” So, from each of the sons of Isra’il, each of the sons of Ya’qub (AS), they were great progenies, many children, they all had huge families, in fact, each family then formed a tribe in and of itself. These are the twelve tribes of the Israelites, the twelve tribes of Bani Isra’il. Yusuf (AS) left them in a wonderful, prosperous condition, but after a few generations, things began to change; when their deeds changed, and they took things for granted, and they stopped obeying Allah (SWT), a lot of things changed, and those same people who were the ruling class of Egypt now became enslaved by the new generation of pharaohs, of kings that came into power. They enslaved them, they punished them, tortured them, committed infanticide, would kill all of the male offspring every second year, all of this is well known, until the time of Musa (AS). And the persecution continues, Allah (SWT) raises Musa (AS), grants him prophethood, and Musa (AS) leaves for a short period of time, goes to Madian, comes back, has a message for Fir’Awn, and the struggle and the conflict between Musa (AS) and Fir’Awn begins. Bani Isra’il continues to be persecuted and Musa (AS) on one side works to look after Bani Isra’il, also to teach them, to reform them, to spark faith in them, and also has to face the forces of Fir’Awn and the torment of Fir’Awn, and this is where incredible events happen. Allah (SWT) shows 9 consecutive signs through Musa (AS), meaning different forms of punishment. Fir’Awn and his people see this and each time they are devastated by one of these small inflictions. Allah (SWT) is showing them punishment so that they come back to Allah (SWT), so the storms, the infestation by locusts, the blood in the drinking water, the bed bugs or the ticks, all of these signs [“(These are) among the nine Signs (thou wilt take) to Pharaoh and his people: for they are a people rebellious in transgression.” Surah Al-Naml: 27], Allah (SWT) shows Fir’Awn, and he still doesn’t come around, so eventually, the greatest sign comes; that is, Allah (SWT) drowns Fir’Awn in the same water through which he allows Bani Isra’il, Musa (AS) and his followers to cross on dry land, and as you know, the sea closes in on Fir’Awn and his people and they are destroyed. That makes ten major signs. Now, just as all of this has happened, Musa (AS) gives them the directive that “We now have to go to Al-Ardh Al-Muqaddasa, to the sacred land.” And in the next section, InshaAllah, we’ll talk about how that happened.