Ṣād 38:41-44

Wa'dhkur ʿabdanā Ayyūba idh nādā rabbahū annī massaniya'sh-shayṭānu bi-nuṣbin wa ʿadhāb · Urkuḍ bi-rijlika, hādhā mughtasalun bāridun wa sharāb · Wa wahabnā lahū ahlahū wa mithlahum maʿahum raḥmatan minnā wa dhikrā li-uli'l-albāb · Wa khudh bi-yadika ḍighthan fa'ḍrib bihī wa lā taḥnath, innā wajadnāhu ṣābirā, niʿma'l-ʿabd, innahū awwāb

"And remember our servant Job. When he called to his Lord: 'Satan has touched me with weariness and torment.' 'Strike the ground with your foot: here is a cool washing-place and a drink.' And We bestowed on him his family and the like of them with them — as a mercy from Us and an admonition for those who have a kernel. 'Take a handful of twigs in your hand, strike with it, and do not break your oath.' We found him patient. How excellent a servant! He was one who turned back often."

For the third time the sūra says wa'dhkur ʿabdanā. And what distinguishes this account from the earlier ones is that it begins not with what was given but with what was taken away.

I record this as my own reading: in the first two accounts a test came after what was given; in the third the test stands at the beginning. The sūra shows that the same epithet (awwāb) is the same in all three states.

نَادَىٰ — root ن-د-ي: to call in a loud voice. And this root occurred in the third verse: fa-nādaw wa-lāta ḥīna manāṣ — "they cried out, but it was no longer the hour of escape."

This is a shared wording that can be verified, and I record it as my own reading: the same verb in two places, with two opposite outcomes. What divides them is not the cry itself but its time. The third verse set up a question of hour; the forty-first shows the other face of that question.

مَسَّ — root م-س-س: to touch. And the distinguishing side of the word is its lightness: mass is to come into contact with a thing — not to strike, not to hit.

نُصْب — root ن-ص-ب. This word was treated in al-Ghāshiya at 88/3 and in al-Inshirāḥ, and this verse was named there: "Satan has touched me with weariness and torment" (Ṣād 38/41).

The concrete sense of the root: to set a thing up, to hold it upright. Naṣb — a standing stone; manṣib — the place where a person is set up. And from there: naṣab/nuṣb — to grow weary, exhaustion. The link the lexicographers make is this: standing upright for a long time wearies.

The word conveys not "pain", that is, but exhaustion.

The two words together take in two directions: the exhaustion within and the distress without.

And here there is a construction that must be read with care.

Job ascribes the affliction to Satan: massaniya'sh-shayṭān. But the one he calls to is his Lord: nādā rabbah.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the separation of the subjects of the sentence:

There is no reproach in the sentence, that is. Job calls to his Lord but does not ascribe the affliction to Him. And this prepares the verdict in the forty-fourth verse (innā wajadnāhu ṣābirā).

Satan's role here has been disputed in the classical commentaries, and the disagreement is real:

I convey all three and do not impose a preference. And in this discussion I do not enter into details resting on report — the kind of the illness, its duration, what befell his family; the verse says none of these things.

رَكَضَ — root ر-ك-ض. Its concrete sense: to strike with the foot, to kick. The lexicographers record that the word is used in particular for a rider's striking with his foot to spur his horse. From here comes the sense "to run, to go swiftly" as well (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/12 — idhā hum minhā yarkuḍūn).

And the character of the command must be recorded: an act is asked for.

I record this as my own reading: the answer is not a sentence of glad tidings but a command to move. A sick and exhausted man is told to strike the ground with his foot. The healing, that is, comes after the person's own movement.

And this is a pattern that has a parallel in the Qurʾān: Mary too is given a command — wa huzzī ilayki bi-jidhʿi'n-nakhlati tusāqiṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban janiyyā (Maryam 19/25): she is asked to shake the trunk of the palm towards herself. In both places a small act is asked for in a situation that looks impossible. This link is one I make; the verses do not refer to one another.

مُغْتَسَل — root غ-س-ل: to wash. A noun of place or of instrument of Form VIII: a place to wash in, or the thing one washes with (water).

بَارِد — root ب-ر-د: cold, cool.

And two uses are given: to wash and to drink.

I record this as an observation: in the forty-first verse the affliction was given with two words (nuṣb — exhaustion from within, ʿadhāb — distress from without). In the forty-second the answer comes in a pair as well: drinking and washing. Two words fall to two afflictions.

And the epithet bārid must be recorded: in the fifty-seventh verse of the sūra the drink given to those in the Fire will be ḥamīm (boiling water). Two drinks in the same sūra: the one cool, the other boiling. This is a contrast that can be verified from the text.

And the root و-ه-ب comes for the fourth and last time. It was tabulated above: al-Wahhāb (9) → wahabnā (30) → hab lī (35) → wahabnā (43).

وَمِثْلَهُم مَّعَهُمْ — "and the like of them with them".

The exegetes explain this expression in two ways:

I do not impose a preference.

رَحْمَةً مِّنَّا وَذِكْرَىٰ لِأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَٰبِ — and two grounds are given:

I record this as my own reading: the verse gives both the reason the event was lived and the reason it is told. And the second ground uses exactly the same words as the ground for the Book's being sent down in the twenty-ninth verse: wa li-yatadhakkara ulu'l-albāb. It was tabulated above.

ضِغْث — root ض-غ-ث. And the lexicographers describe the word thus: a bundle of mixed grass, twigs or stalks, as much as a hand can grasp. A handful. There is a mixedness and a being held together at the root of the word; from the same root aḍghāthu aḥlām — confused dreams (Yūsuf 12/44).

تَحْنَثْ — root ح-ن-ث. Its concrete sense: a sin, a grave offence; and the breaking of an oath. Ḥinth — to break an oath. The original sense at the root of the word is "a heavy burden, a sin", and it passed to this meaning because the breaking of an oath was counted a sin.

Now the disagreement. The verse gives a command but does not state the background of the command (what the oath was).

In this question I certainly do not impose a preference, and my reason is this: the verse does not state two of the three elements of the matter (the content of the oath and the one it concerns). Where the text is silent I am silent.

The only thing verifiable in the wording is this: there is an oath, it is asked that it not be broken, and the manner of its fulfilment has been made lighter.

I record this as an observation: the choice of the word ḍighth — a handful of thin twigs — conveys lightness. What is recounted in the verse, that is, is not the cancellation of an obligation but the lessening of its weight. The oath stands; the manner of carrying it changes.

And now the sūra's chain of patience closes. It was tabulated above; here I complete it.

Two commands and one verdict. And the form of the verdict must be recorded: innā wajadnāhu ṣābirā — "we found him patient."

وَجَدَ — root و-ج-د: to find. The verb is the pattern that announces the outcome of a test: something sought has been found where it was sought.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of verb: the verse does not say "he was patient"; it says "we found him patient." Patience, that is, is given not as something claimed but as something established after a testing.

And this must be read together with the forty-first verse. Job had complained — massaniya'sh-shayṭānu bi-nuṣbin wa ʿadhāb. To have spoken one's affliction, that is, is no bar to being found patient.

I record this plainly as my own inference, because it corrects a widespread misunderstanding: the patience the verse describes is not silence. Job speaks, takes his affliction to his Lord, receives an answer — and is found patient. No contradiction is set up between these two in the verse.

نِّعْمَ ٱلْعَبْدُ إِنَّهُۥٓ أَوَّابٌ — the exact repetition of the thirtieth verse. Two prophets (Solomon and Job) close with the same two sentences.