Jacob · Yaqub
Jacob in Islam
Jacob is Yaqub in Arabic, written يَعْقُوب. The two names belong to the same person, and the two traditions tell his story differently enough to be worth reading side by side.
- English
- Jacob
- Arabic
- يَعْقُوب
- Read as
- Yaqub
- Status
- Prophet in Islam
- Where the English comes from
- Hebrew Yaakov, read as heel-holder or supplanter.
- What the Arabic carries
- Yaqub, the Quranic form of the same name; also called Israil.
- Full name page
- Yaqub on AsrNaam
Is Jacob the same as Yaqub? Yes. Jacob is the English form and Yaqub the Arabic form of one name. He is the father of Yusuf and the Israil whose descendants the Quran calls Bani Israil.
Yaqub in the Quran
Yaqub is the son of Ishaq, the grandson of Ibrahim, and the father of Yusuf. The Quran gives him a second name, Israil, and the children of Israil who appear throughout the book are his descendants, which makes his name one of the most structurally important in the Quran.
His own story is told mostly through his grief. He knows from the start that the dream must be kept from the brothers. He does not believe the shirt or the wolf. He says that beautiful patience is what remains to him, and he goes blind from weeping, and he never stops telling his sons not to despair of the mercy of God.
The sight returns when the shirt is laid on his face. It is the only miracle in the chapter, and it is given to the father rather than to the prophet who has been the subject of the story.
Using the name
The full entry for Yaqub carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.
Questions about Jacob and Yaqub
Is Jacob the same name as Yaqub?
Is Yaqub the same as Jacob?
Why is Yaqub also called Israil?
Can a Muslim family use the name Yaqub?
Other names the two traditions share
Every one of these is one figure under two names.
Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.