The story of Isaac, son of Ibrahim

We have already presented that he was born when his father was one hundred years old, fourteen years after his brother Ismaïl: « So We gave him good tidings of Isaac, a prophet from among the righteous: and We blessed him and Isaac: and of their descendants a doer of good and one who wrongs himself, clear. » Allah the Most High has mentioned him, praising him, in more than one verse of His Mighty Book: and we presented in the hadith of Abu Hurayra, from the Messenger of Allah, that the noble, the son of the noble, the son of the noble, the son of the noble: Youssouf son of Ya'qoub son of Isaac son of Ibrahim. And the People of the Book mention that Isaac, when he married Rifqa bint Thabou'ayl during his father's lifetime, was forty years old: and that she was barren: so he prayed to Allah for her: and she conceived: and bore two twin boys: the first of the two they named 'Isou: and he is the one the Arabs call 'Is: and he is the father of the Roms: and the second came out holding his brother's heel: so they named him Ya'qoub.

Isaac loved 'Is more than Ya'qoub because he was his firstborn: and their mother Rifqa loved Ya'qoub more because he was the younger. When Isaac grew old and his sight weakened, he craved from his son 'Is food: and ordered him to go and hunt game for him: and cook it for him so that he might bless over him and pray for him: and 'Is was a hunter: so he went to seek that: Rifqa then ordered her son Ya'qoub to slaughter two kids from the best of the flock: and prepare from the two of them a meal such as his father craved: and to come to him with it before his brother so that he might pray for him: and she rose and dressed him in his brother's clothes: and placed on his arms and his neck from the skin of the two kids: because 'Is was hairy of body: and Ya'qoub was not. Who are you? Your son.

So he drew him to himself and felt him: the voice is the voice of Ya'qoub: but the touch and the clothes are 'Is's. When he ate and finished, he prayed for him that he be the greatest of his brothers in rank: and that his word prevail over them: and over the peoples after them: and that his provision and offspring be abundant. When he left him, his brother 'Is came with what his father had commanded him to bring near: What is this, O my son? This is the food you craved.

Did you not bring it to me earlier, and I ate of it and prayed for you? No, by Allah. And he realized that his brother had beaten him to it: so he felt great grief toward him. And they mention that he threatened him with killing when their father died: and his father asked him: so he prayed for him with another prayer: and that He make for his descendants a thick land: and that He multiply their provisions and fruits: when their mother heard what 'Is was threatening his brother Ya'qoub with: she ordered her son Ya'qoub to go to her brother Labane who is in the land of Harrane: and to stay with him until his brother's anger against him subsides: and to marry from his daughters: and she said to her husband Isaac to command him with that: and bequeath it to him: and pray for him: and he did: so Ya'qoub left them on the evening of that day: and the evening caught up with him in a place: and he slept there: he took a stone and placed it under his head.

And he slept: and saw in his sleep a ladder set up from heaven to earth: and the angels ascending and descending on it: and the Lord addressing him: I will bless over you: and multiply your offspring: and grant you this land: and your posterity after you: so when he rose from his sleep he rejoiced at what he saw: and made a vow to Allah: that if he returned safely to his family, he would surely build in this place a temple for Allah: and that a tenth of everything he would be provided with would belong to Allah: then he attended to that stone: and poured oil upon it by which to recognize it: and named that place Bayt Il: that is, the house of Allah: and it is the site of Bayt al-Maqdis today, which Ya'qoub built after that: when Ya'qoub arrived at his uncle's, in the land of Harrane, he had two daughters: the elder named Léa: and the younger named Rachel: so he asked for Rachel: and she was the fairer and more graceful of the two: so he answered him to that on condition that he shepherd his flock for seven years: when the term passed, his uncle Labane prepared a meal: and gathered the people for it: and led his elder daughter Léa to him by night in procession: and she had weak eyes, uncomely to look at: when Ya'qoub awoke, behold, it was Léa: why have you betrayed me: when I asked for Rachel alone?

It is not our custom to marry the younger before the elder: if you wish her sister, work seven more years and I will marry you to her. So he worked seven years: and brought her in to him along with her sister: and that was permissible in their religion: then it was abrogated in the law of the Torah: and this alone is sufficient proof of the abrogation's occurrence: for Ya'qoub's deed is proof of the lawfulness of this: and its permission: because he is preserved.

And Labane gave each of his two daughters a maidservant: so he gave to Léa a maidservant named Zilfa: and gave to Rachel a maidservant named Balha: and Allah the Most High compensated Léa's weakness by granting her children: so the first who bore to Ya'qoub was Ruben: then Siméon: then Lévi: then Juda: at that Rachel grew jealous: and she was not conceiving: so she gave Ya'qoub her maidservant Balha: and he lay with her: and she conceived: and bore him a boy whom she named Dan: and conceived: and bore another boy whom she named Nephtali: then Léa attended to that: and gave her maidservant Zilfa from Ya'qoub: and she bore him Gad and Acher, two male boys: then Léa conceived as well: and bore a fifth boy from her: and named him Issacar: then conceived: and bore a sixth boy whom she named Zaboulon: then conceived: and bore a girl whom she named Dina: so she had from Ya'qoub seven children: then Rachel called upon Allah the Most High: and asked Him to grant her a boy from Ya'qoub: so Allah heard her cry: and answered her supplication: and she conceived from the prophet of Allah Ya'qoub: and bore him a great, noble, goodly, beautiful boy: and she named him Youssouf.

All this, they were residing in the land of Harrane: and he shepherded his uncle's flock for six more years after entering upon the two girls: so his stay amounted to twenty years.

I have been blessed because of you: so ask me from my wealth whatever you wish. Give me every lamb born of your flock this year: pied with white and black: and every gleaming lamb: white with black: and every brown goat with whiteness: and every white-with-black goat of the he-goats. Yes. So they set to work: and put aside from their father's flock what was of these qualities of he-goats: so that nothing would be born of the young on these qualities: Ya'qoub then took fresh, peeled rods of almond and poplar: he would peel them white: and place them in the troughs of the flock in the water: so that the flock would look at them and startle: and their young would move in their wombs: and the colors of their young would become so. And this is of the class of breaches of habit: and ranks among the miracles. So Ya'qoub came to have abundant sheep: and mounts: and slaves: and his uncle's and his sons' attitude toward him changed: as if they were becoming straitened with him.

And Allah the Most High revealed to Ya'qoub to return to his father's land and his people: and promised him to be with him: so he presented that to his family: and they answered hastening to obey him: so he took charge of his family and his wealth: and Rachel stole her father's idols: and when they passed beyond and moved away from their land: Labane and his people: and when Labane joined Ya'qoub, he rebuked him for leaving without his permission and knowledge: and why did he not inform him: so that he might send them out amid joy: and drums and tabors: and that he might bid farewell to his daughters and their children: and why did they take his idols with them: and Ya'qoub had no knowledge of the idols: so he denied that they had taken idols of his: so he entered the houses of his daughters and their maidservants, searching: and found nothing: and Rachel had placed them in the camel's pack-saddle: and she was beneath it: so she did not rise. Here is Galaad.

He also made a pact that he would not dishonor his daughters: nor marry over them: nor cross this ridge to the other's land: neither Labane nor Ya'qoub: and they prepared a meal: and the people ate with them: and each of the two bade the other farewell: and they parted, returning to their lands: and when Ya'qoub drew near the land of Séir, the angels met him: giving him good tidings of the coming: and Ya'qoub sent messengers to his brother 'Isou, seeking his pardon and humbling himself before him: so the messengers returned: and informed Ya'qoub that 'Is has set out toward you with four hundred riders: so Ya'qoub feared that: and called upon Allah: and prayed to Him: and humbled himself to Him: and submitted humbly in His presence: and implored Him by His covenant and His promise which He had promised him: and asked Him to restrain from him the evil of his brother 'Is: and prepared for his brother a great gift: two hundred ewes: and twenty he-goats: and two hundred she-lambs: and twenty rams: and thirty milch camels: and forty cows: and ten bulls: and twenty she-asses: and ten donkeys: and commanded his servants to drive each of these classes separately: Who are you?

And whose is this with you? Your servant Ya'qoub: it is a gift to my master 'Is. And let the one after him say the same: and the one after him the same: and the one after him the same: and he comes after us. And Ya'qoub stayed behind with his two wives: and his two maids: and his eleven sons: after all of them: by two nights: and made them travel by night: and hide by day: when the time of dawn of the second night came, an angel appeared to him from among the angels: in the form of a man: so Ya'qoub took him for a man of the people: so Ya'qoub came to wrestle with him: and overcome him: so Ya'qoub prevailed over him, as it appeared: but the angel struck his hip: so Ya'qoub went lame.

What is your name? Ya'qoub. You should not be called after today except Israël. And who are you?

And what is your name? So he departed from him: and he knew he was an angel of the angels: and Ya'qoub awoke limping on his leg: and for that reason the children of Israël do not eat the sinew of the thigh. Ya'qoub raised his eyes: and behold, his brother 'Is was approaching with four hundred riders: so he advanced in front of his family: and when his brother 'Is saw him, he prostrated to him seven times: and that was their greeting in that age: and it was sanctioned for them: as the angels prostrated to Adam as a greeting to him: and as Youssouf's brothers and his parents prostrated to him, as will come: and when 'Is saw him, he advanced to him: and embraced him: and kissed him: and wept: and 'Is raised his eyes: and looked at the women and the children: From where do you have these? These are those whom Allah has granted your servant.

So the two maids and their sons drew near: and prostrated to him: and Léa and her sons drew near: and prostrated to him: and Rachel and her son Youssouf drew near last: and prostrated to him: and he offered him to accept his gift: and pressed him: so he accepted it: and 'Is returned: and went ahead of him: and Ya'qoub followed with his family and what he had of cattle and flocks and slaves: intending the mountains of Séir: and when he passed Saouira, he built himself a house: and shades for his animals: then he passed by Ourousalim, the village of Sahim: and camped before the village: and bought the farm of the sons of Hammour, the father of Sahim, for a hundred ewes: and pitched his tent there: and built there an altar: and named it Il, the god of Israël: and Allah commanded him to build it that he might exalt himself in it: and it is Bayt al-Maqdis today: which Sulayman son of Dawoud renewed after that: and it is the site of the Rock which he had marked by pouring oil upon it before: as we mentioned first.

And the People of the Book mention here the story of Dina bint Ya'qoub from Léa: and what happened in her affair with Sahim son of Hammour, who overpowered her and brought her into his dwelling: then asked her hand from her father and her brothers: We will do nothing unless you all circumcise yourselves: and we intermarry with you and you with us: for we do not marry with a people uncircumcised. So they answered them to that: and all of them circumcised themselves: and when the third day came: and their pain from the circumcision's ache intensified: Ya'qoub's sons fell upon them: and killed them to the last of them: and killed Sahim and his father Hammour: for the ugly thing they had done to them: in addition to their disbelief: and the idols they worshipped: for that Ya'qoub's sons killed them: and took their wealth as spoils: and Allah knows better.

Then Rachel conceived: and bore a boy: and he is Benyamin: except that she struggled severely at his delivery: and died after him: and Ya'qoub buried her at Afarath: and it is Bethléem: and Ya'qoub made over her grave a stone: and it is the stone known as the tomb of Rachel to this day.

And Ya'qoub's male sons were twelve men: from Léa: Ruben: and Siméon: and Lévi: and Juda: and Issacar: and Zaboulon: and from Rachel: Youssouf: and Benyamin: and from Rachel's maidservant: Dan: and Nephtali: and from Léa's maidservant: Gad: and Acher. And Ya'qoub came to his father Isaac: and stayed with him at the village of Habroun which is in the land of Canaan: where Ibrahim dwelt: then Isaac fell ill: and died at one hundred and eighty years: and his two sons 'Is and Ya'qoub buried him with his father Ibrahim the Confident in the cave he had bought: as we presented. And Allah, glory to Him, knows better than that.