The story of Ayyub (Job) in the Quran, scene by scene

Four verses carry his name

The name Ayyub occurs in only four verses of the whole Quran:

• An-Nisa 163 — in a list of prophets who received revelation.
• Al-An'am 84 — among the descendants of Abraham whom God guided.
• Al-Anbiya 83 — the first passage of the story.
• Sad 41 — the second passage of the story.

The first two are a name in a list. The last two are the story — and it is one of the shortest prophetic narratives in the Quran: six verses in two surahs, and no more. Yet his name became, in ordinary speech, the byword for patience. This article follows only what the text itself carries.

Scene one: the call (Al-Anbiya 83-84)

﴿وَأَيُّوبَ إِذۡ نَادَىٰ رَبَّهُۥٓ أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ ٱلضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرۡحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ فَٱسۡتَجَبۡنَا لَهُۥ فَكَشَفۡنَا مَا بِهِۦ مِن ضُرّٖۖ وَءَاتَيۡنَٰهُ أَهۡلَهُۥ وَمِثۡلَهُم مَّعَهُمۡ رَحۡمَةٗ مِّنۡ عِندِنَا وَذِكۡرَىٰ لِلۡعَٰبِدِينَ﴾

And [mention] Job, when he called to his Lord, "Indeed, adversity has touched me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful." So We responded to him and removed what afflicted him of adversity. And We gave him [back] his family and the like thereof with them as mercy from Us and a reminder for the worshippers [of Allah].

Al-Anbiya 83 — 84

The passage sits in a chain of prophets, each given two or three verses: David and Solomon, then Ayyub, then Ishmael and Idris and Dhul-Kifl, then Dhun-Nun. The whole context is about calling upon God and being answered.

One feature of Ayyub's call deserves a pause: he asks for nothing. He states his condition — "indeed, adversity has touched me" — and describes his Lord — "and you are the most merciful of the merciful" — and names no request. The answer in the next verse arrives as three things: the harm removed, his family restored, and more with them.

Scene two: the command and the recovery (Sad 41-44)

﴿وَٱذۡكُرۡ عَبۡدَنَآ أَيُّوبَ إِذۡ نَادَىٰ رَبَّهُۥٓ أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنُ بِنُصۡبٖ وَعَذَابٍ ٱرۡكُضۡ بِرِجۡلِكَۖ هَٰذَا مُغۡتَسَلُۢ بَارِدٞ وَشَرَابٞ وَوَهَبۡنَا لَهُۥٓ أَهۡلَهُۥ وَمِثۡلَهُم مَّعَهُمۡ رَحۡمَةٗ مِّنَّا وَذِكۡرَىٰ لِأُوْلِي ٱلۡأَلۡبَٰبِ وَخُذۡ بِيَدِكَ ضِغۡثٗا فَٱضۡرِب بِّهِۦ وَلَا تَحۡنَثۡۗ إِنَّا وَجَدۡنَٰهُ صَابِرٗاۚ نِّعۡمَ ٱلۡعَبۡدُ إِنَّهُۥٓ أَوَّابٞ﴾

And remember Our servant Job, when he called to his Lord, "Indeed, Satan has touched me with hardship and torment." [So he was told], "Strike [the ground] with your foot; this is a [spring for] a cool bath and drink." And We granted him his family and a like [number] with them as mercy from Us and a reminder for those of understanding. [We said], "And take in your hand a bunch [of grass] and strike with it and do not break your oath." Indeed, We found him patient, an excellent servant. Indeed, he was one repeatedly turning back [to Allah].

Sad 41 — 44

This passage is longer and carries what the first does not:

• The complaint names Satan: "indeed, Satan has touched me with hardship and torment" — language absent from the first passage.
• A command to act: "strike the ground with your foot; this is a spring of water to wash with and a drink" — the recovery follows a movement of his own, not the supplication alone.
• Family restored, with a stated purpose: "and We gave him back his family and a like number with them as mercy from Us and a reminder for those of understanding" — the story is itself the reminder.
• The bunch of twigs and the oath: "and take in your hand a bunch of twigs and strike with it and do not break your oath."
• The testimony: "indeed, We found him patient, an excellent servant. Indeed, he was one repeatedly turning back to God."

The phrase "an excellent servant" occurs twice in Surah Sad: at 30 of Solomon, and at 44 of Ayyub. The word dighth ("a bunch of twigs") occurs nowhere else in the Quran, and neither does "strike with your foot."

What the wording does: ad-durr

Both Shia works the site serves make the same lexical point about the word Ayyub used for what struck him, and it is a point worth having.

Al-Fayd al-Kashani, in Tafsir as-Safi, notes that ad-darr, with fathah, is general for every kind of harm, while ad-durr, with dammah, is specific to what touches the self — illness and emaciation.

Al-Allamah at-Tabataba'i, in Tafsir al-Mizan, says the same: ad-durr with dammah is specifically the harm that touches the self, such as illness and wasting and the like, while with fathah it is more general. He then sums the affliction up: his wealth went, his children died, and he was tried in his body with a severe illness for a long period.

Ayyub said the first of the two. So in the text, the complaint is about his body and his self before anything else.

How the Sunni tradition reads it

At-Tafsir al-Muyassar, issued by the King Fahd Complex, reads the first passage as: he was tried with harm and grave sickness in his body, and with the loss of family, wealth and children; he was patient and bore it, and called upon his Lord — stating that harm had reached him, and that God is the most merciful of the merciful, so remove it from me.

On the answer, it reads the restoration as doubled: God answered his supplication, lifted the affliction, and returned what he had lost of family, children and wealth, multiplied — as a mercy, and so that he would be an example for everyone patient under affliction.

On the command in Surah Sad: strike the ground with your foot, and water will spring from it, cool; drink of it and wash with it, and the harm and hurt will leave you.

On the twigs and the oath, al-Muyassar explains that Ayyub had sworn to strike his wife if God healed him, having become angry with her over something slight during his illness — and that God released him from the oath by this: take in your hand a bunch of stalks and strike with it, fulfilling your oath, so you do not break it.

How the Shia tradition reads it

As-Safi glosses the twigs as a small bundle of wood, explains that he had sworn to strike his wife over something and then regretted it, so God released his oath by this — and adds that it remains a dispensation in the matter of prescribed penalties, on what is related in that regard.

On the testimony: "indeed We found him patient" in what befell him in his self, his family and his wealth; "an excellent servant" — Ayyub; "indeed he was one who turns back" — turning to God with his whole being.

As-Safi also relays, from Al-Ilal, that Ayyub's affliction came upon a blessing God had given him for which he had rendered thanks — so in that report the trial is not the penalty of a sin.

Al-Mizan compresses the narrative and joins the two passages: he called upon God and complained of his state to Him, so God answered him and delivered him from his illness and restored his wealth and his children and a like number with them.

(All tafsir passages here are rendered in our own English; the Arabic article quotes them verbatim.)

Where the readings agree

• Ayyub is a prophet, listed as such in An-Nisa and Al-An'am.
• What struck him was threefold: wealth, children, body. All three works say so.
• His call was not a protest, and contained no explicit request.
• The response was the harm removed, the family restored, and an increase upon them.
• The story contains a command to act — striking with the foot — so the recovery is tied to an apparent means.
• The verse testifies to his patience and calls him "an excellent servant" and "one who turns back".
• The story is told for the sake of a reminder: "a reminder for the worshippers" in Al-Anbiya, "a reminder for those of understanding" in Sad.

Where they differ

• On the cause of the trial. Al-Muyassar stays with the plain sense: Satan caused him hardship and pain. As-Safi relays from Al-Ilal that the affliction came on account of a blessing he had thanked God for, and that Iblis envied him it. Al-Mizan turns the discussion to the point that attributing the hardship to Satan is the attribution of a cause, not of an independent act.
• On the ruling drawn from the twigs. Al-Muyassar reads it as a mercy and a dispensation in his particular oath. As-Safi adds that it remains a standing dispensation in the matter of penalties. One stops at the event; the other derives a lasting ruling from it.
• On length and emphasis. Al-Muyassar explains the wording and the incident. As-Safi carries extended reports on the details of the story. Al-Mizan compresses the incident and works instead on the meaning of durr and on what the verse establishes.

This article does not adjudicate between them.

What the Quran does not say about Ayyub

The Quran carries what a meaning can be built on and leaves out what would merely be narrated. Not in the text:

• How long the trial lasted. No years, no months: there is not one number in these verses.
• What the illness was. The verses say "the harm" and "hardship and torment", and name no disease.
• How many children he had, or their names, or his wife's name.
• Where and when he lived, or who his people were.
• Any detail of his conversations, beyond what the mention of the oath requires.

Whatever is told of such detail comes from the tafsir and report literature, not from the Quranic text — and this article keeps the two apart deliberately.

Sources

• The Quran text — the King Fahd Complex text (Hafs from Asim), on which every count here is made.
• English translation — Sahih International, the translation the site serves.
• At-Tafsir al-Muyassar — a panel of scholars, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Quran.
• Tafsir as-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
• Tafsir al-Mizan — Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba'i.

Read next

• The story of Yunus in the Quran, scene by scene
• The story of Ibrahim in the Quran, scene by scene
• Verses about patience in the Quran
• Verses of healing in the Quran