Every one of the prophets mentioned in the Quran was an upright man, guided by God along a straight path. The Quran mentions a number of these prophets by name—Ibrahim (Abraham), Ishaq (Isaac), Yaqub (Jacob), Nuh (Noah), Dawood (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), Ayyub (Job), Yousuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), Haroon (Aaron), Zakariya (Zachariah), Isa (Jesus), Ismail, Yahya (John the Baptist), Younus (Jonah), and Lut (Lot) peace be upon them all God has also instructed us not to differentiate between the prophets as they essentially brought the same message to mankind (2:285).
Jacob, the father of Yusuf (Joseph), is named in the Quran as an Israelite prophet. In the early history of Israelites, there is the story of Joseph, who was separated from his father by his stepbrothers. Later, the same happened with Benjamin another brother of Joseph. He too, without his father’s knowledge, was separated from him. These were terrible losses for Prophet Jacob the father, and it was but natural that he became intensely miserable. Had he vented his negative feelings on his elder sons, there would have been great dissension and discord in his family. Instead, he diverted all his flood of feelings towards God saying: ‘I express my grief and sorrow to God.’ (The Quran, 12:86)