21. Surah Al Anbiya'

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَأَيُّوبَ إِذْ نَادَى رَبَّهُ...  

21: 83.  And (remember) Job when he cried to his Lord,

...أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ ﴿٨٣﴾

"Truly distress has seized me, but Thou art the Most Merciful of those that are merciful."

C2739. Job (Ayub) was a prosperous man, with faith in Allah, living somewhere in the north-east comer of Arabia.

He suffers from a number of calamities:

-         his cattle are destroyed,

-         his servants slain by the sword,

-         and his family crushed under his roof.

But he holds fast to his faith in Allah.

As a further calamity he is covered with loathsome sores from head to foot. He loses his peace of mind, and he curses the day he was born. His false friends come and attribute his afflictions to sin.

These "Job's comforters" are no comforters at all, and he further loses his balance of mind, but Allah recalls to him all His mercies, and he resumes his humility and gives up self-justification.

He is restored to prosperity, with twice as much as he had before; his brethren and friends come back to him; he had a new family of seven sons and three fair daughters. He lived to a good old age, and saw four generations of descendants.

All this is recorded in the Book of Job in the Old Testament.

Of all the Hebrew writings, the Hebrew of this Book comes nearest to Arabic. The account given in the Biblical sources and the image that it projects of Prophet Job is decidedly different from that found in the Quran and the Hadith, which present him as a prophet and brilliant example of dignified patience becoming of a great Prophet of Allah ever trustful in Him and His promises.

Nothing could be farther from truth than saying that he lost his peace of mind or resorted to curses during the period of his trial. (R).

فَاسْتَجَبْنَا لَهُ فَكَشَفْنَا مَا بِهِ مِن ضُرٍّ...  

21: 84.  So We listened to him:

We removed the distress that was on him,

...وَآتَيْنَاهُ أَهْلَهُ وَمِثْلَهُم مَّعَهُمْ رَحْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِنَا وَذِكْرَى لِلْعَابِدِينَ ﴿٨٤﴾

and We restored his people to him, and doubled their number -- as a Grace from Ourselves,

and a thing for commemoration, for all who serve Us.

C2740. Job is the pattern of humility, patience, and faith in Allah. It was with these weapons that he fought and conquered evil.

Asad’s Version:

21:83

AND [remember] Job, when he cried out to his Sustainer, "Affliction has befallen me: but Thou art the most merciful of the merciful !" 78 –

(21:84) whereupon We responded unto him and removed all the affliction from which he suffered; and We gave him new offspring, 79 doubling their number as an act of grace from Us, and as a reminder unto all who worship Us.

[[Asad’s note

78 The story of Job (Ayyub in Arabic), describing his erstwhile happiness and prosperity, his subsequent trials and tribulations, the loss of all his children and his properly, his own loathsome illness and utter despair and, finally, God's reward of his patience in adversity, is given in full in the Old Testament (The Book of Job). This Biblical, highly philosophical epic is most probably a Hebrew translation or paraphrase - still evident in the language employed - of an ancient

Nabataean (i.e., North-Arabian) poem, for "Job, the author of the finest piece of poetry that the ancient Semitic world produced, was an Arab, not a Jew, as the form of his name (Iyyob) and the scene of his book, North Arabia, indicate" (Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, London 1937, pp. 42-43). Since God "spoke" to him, Job ranks in the Qur'an among the prophets, personifying the supreme virtue of patience in adversity (sabr).

79 Lit., "his family" - i.e., new children in place of those who had died. ]]