Al-Anbiyaa (The Prophets)

83. “And (remember) Job when he called unto his Lord (saying:) ‘Verily distress has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful ones’.”

84. “So We responded to him (his prayer) and We removed the distress that was upon him, and We restored his family to him, and the like of them with them; a mercy from Us and a reminder for the worshippers.”

These two holy verses speak about one of other great prophets of Allah and his instructive biography, i.e. Job. He has a sad biography but, in the meantime, it is splendid and full of dignity. His patience was very wonderful, specially for bearing the unpleasant events, in a form that ‘Job’s patience’ is an old proverb.

Through the verses under discussion, the Holy Qur’an particularly points to the stage of Job’s rescue and overcoming the difficulties when he regains his lost merits, so that it may be a lesson for all the believers in any time and any place who involve in difficulties, and the Muslim believers of Mecca, in particular, who were seriously in the siege of the enemy at the time of the revelation of these verses.

The verse, addressing the Prophet (S), implies that he should remember Job when he called his Lord, saying: distress, pain, sickness and miseries had surrounded him, and that He is the Most Merciful of the merciful ones.

The verse says:

“And (remember) Job when he called unto his Lord (saying:) ‘Verily distress has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful ones’.”

The Arabic word /durr/, upon the rhythm of /hurr/, is applied to any calamity that visits the man’s spirit or body, as well as mutilation, loss of wealth, the death of the dear persons, spoiling of prestige, and the like. As we will explain later, Job visited many of these calamities.

As other prophets, at the time of invocation for the removal of his exhausting difficulties, Job was very polite and humble before Allah. He did not say anything to be even like complaint. He only said that He might solve his problem because he knew that He is the Great and aware of the way of it.

Then in the next verse, the Qur’an implies that after Job’s invocation, Allah accepted his prayer and removed his pain and calamity.

The verse says:

“So We responded to him (his prayer) and We removed the distress that was upon him…”

Then, it continues saying that He returned his family to him, and added to them the like of them, in order that it would be both a mercy from Him to them and a remembrance for all those who worship Allah.

The verse says:

“…and We restored his family to him, and the like of them with them; a mercy from Us and a reminder for the worshippers.”

This fact has been stated here in order that the Muslims know that how plenty the difficulties are and how much the calamities may be, and how intense the enemies can be and their forces may be abundant, yet with a slight mercy of Allah all of these can be removed.

It is so that not only the losses will be amended, but also sometimes, as a reward for the steadfast patient, He adds to it the like of what has been lost. This is a lesson for all Muslims in general and particularly for the Muslims who were in the siege of the enemy and had so many problems at the time of the revelation of these verses.

A Few Points About Job (as)

1. A tradition from Imam Sadiq (as) indicates that once a person asked him about the reason for which Job confronted that calamity.

Imam Sadiq (as) answered him in detail, the shortened of which is that the calamity of Job was not for the sake that he was unthankful of the divine blessings, on the contrary, it was for the thankfulness of the divine blessings to which ’Iblis envied and said to the presence of Allah:

“If Job thanked You so much it would be for the vast and comfortable life You have bestowed on him, and if You take the material merits of this world from him, he will never be gratitude to You. Let me dominate over him concerning his affairs of this world so that it may be known that the matter is the same.”

In order that this event was an evidence for all the followers of the path of the truth, Allah gave this permission to him. Iblis came and destroyed his wealth and children one after another, but, not only these painful events did not decrease the state of thankfulness of Job, but his gratitude was increased.

Satan asked Allah that he would also dominate over his sheep and farming. This permission was given him. Then he burnt Job’s farming utterly and destroyed his sheep, too. Again the thankfulness of Job was increased.

Finally, Satan asked Allah to dominate over the body of Job, and to cause him a terrible sickness. This happened in a manner that Job could not move because of intense of disease and suppuration, without the existence of the least infection in his intelligence and understanding.

Precisely speaking, the favours of Job were taken one after another, but parallel with it the rank of gratitude increased in him.

It happened that a group of monks came to visit him. They asked him what kind of great sin he had committed that he was in too much calamity. Thus, the scorn of people began and this case tolerated too much for Job.

He answered them that, by the Lord, he had never consumed a morsel but an orphan or a poor person was sitting at his food table; and there had came no worship of Allah to him but he had chosen its hardest form.

It was at this time that Job had passed successfully all his examinations in the rank of patience and gratitude. He began supplicating and, with a very polite manner, and free from any complaint, he asked his Lord to help him mercifully for solving his problems¹ .

It was then when the doors of the Divine mercy started to be opened and very soon his difficulties swiftly disappeared and the divine favours came back to him more than what there were before.²

Yes, the thoughts and programs of men of Allah do not change with the change of favours. When they are in welfare or distress, freedom or prison, safety or sickness, power or weakness, and, on the whole, in all circumstances their attentions are toward Allah and the alterations of life do not create any change in them.

Their soul is similar to the Pacific Ocean, the peach of which remains still even with the storms.

Also, they never lose hope because of bitter events. They stand firm and persevere until the doors of the Divine mercy would be opened. They do know that hard incidents are originally the Divine examinations that sometimes He provides them for some of His particular servants in order to make them more experience.

2. Among the commentators, the common commentary upon the sentence:

“…We restored his family to him and the like of them…”

is that Allah returned Job’s children to their first life and in addition to them He gave him other children, too. Some Islamic narrations, including that of Imam Sadiq’s, indicate that Allah restored him (as) not only the children who had been annihilated in that event but also the children who had died before that.³

Some commentators believe that Allah probably gave some new offspring and grand children to Job and they filled the empty place of the children whom he had lost.

3. It is cited in some unreliable narrations that as the result of an intensive sickness Job’s body had got such an infection that people could not approach him. But this meaning has explicitly been negated in the traditions narrated from Ahl-ul-Bayt (as).

The intellect also proves the latter, because if a prophet possesses a hateful state or quality, it does not adapt to his prophetic mission. He must be in a situation that all people can meet him pleasantly and hear the words of Allah from him. A prophet has always attractions.

However, Ayyub (Job) is a prophet who has been honoured with the sign of patience in the Qur’an, where it says:

“…verily We found him patient; most excellent the servant! Surely he was frequent in returning (to Allah).”4