After marrying the two sisters, he continued to pasture his uncle’s sheep for a further six years, so that his stay with Laban lasted a full twenty years.
Jacob then asked his uncle Laban to let him depart for his homeland. Laban said, “I have been blessed on your account; ask of my wealth whatever wages you wish.” Jacob replied, “Give me every lamb born to your flock this year that is pied, every one that is black with white patches, every dappled one streaked with white, and every all-white kid among the goats.” Laban agreed.
Laban’s sons, however, removed from their father’s flock every male goat that bore those markings, lest any future offspring display them, and they drove them three days’ journey away.
It is related that Jacob—peace be upon him—took fresh, green rods of almond and plane, peeled them in streaks, and set them in the watering troughs before the sheep. When the animals gazed at the rods they were startled and the young within them stirred, so their offspring were born with those very colors. Such a deed belongs to the realm of extraordinary wonders and is counted among the miracles. Jacob—peace be upon him—thus came to possess abundant sheep, livestock, and servants, and the faces of his uncle and cousins changed toward him, constrained by envy.
Allah, Exalted be He, then revealed to Jacob that he should return to the land of his father and his people, promising to be with him. Jacob presented the matter to his household and they promptly agreed. He therefore set out with his family and his wealth, while Rachel stole her father’s idols.
After they had crossed the border and distanced themselves, Laban and his men pursued them. When Laban overtook Jacob he reproached him for leaving without notice—“Why did you not tell me, so that I could send you off with joy, tambourines, and drums, and bid farewell to my daughters and their children?”—and for taking his idols.
Jacob knew nothing of the idols and denied taking them. Laban searched the tents of his daughters and their maidservants but found nothing. Rachel had hidden the idols in the saddle-cushion of the camel and was sitting on it; she did not rise, pleading that she was menstruating, and thus he could not reach them.
They then made a covenant on a mound called Gilead: Jacob would not mistreat Laban’s daughters or marry other women besides them, and neither of them would cross that mound into the land of the other—neither Laban nor Jacob. They prepared a meal, the people ate together, bade one another farewell, and each returned to his own land.
When Jacob approached the land of Seir, angels came out to greet him and herald his arrival. Jacob dispatched messengers to his brother Esau with conciliatory and humble words. The messengers returned and informed him, “Esau is coming toward you with four hundred men on foot.” Jacob grew fearful, supplicated Allah—glorified and exalted is He—prayed, humbled himself, invoked the covenant and promise that Allah had given him, and asked that He protect him from the harm of his brother Esau. He also prepared a magnificent gift for his brother: two hundred ewes,