Yaqub, son of Ishaq, was a prophet raising twelve sons, one of whom, Yusuf, he loved with a tenderness the older brothers grew to resent. When they returned one evening with fake tears and a shirt stained with false blood, claiming a wolf had eaten Yusuf, Yaqub saw through the story instantly. His response became the gold standard of grief in Islam: “Your souls enticed you to do something. But patience is beautiful, and God is my Help against what you describe.” (Quran 12:18).
He wept for Yusuf across the years until his eyes turned white with sorrow, yet in the same breath forbade despair: “and do not despair of God's comfort.” (12:87). Decades later the family stood reunited in Egypt, the old dream fulfilled. On his deathbed, Yaqub asked his sons a single question, “What will you worship after Me?”, because creed was the only inheritance he cared about (2:133).