339. Tales in the life history of Prophet Ayyub.

Exegetes have written various kinds of stories in the guise of explanations to this verse (38:44) of the Quran.

The following is a fabricated story by these people.

It seems Prophet Ayyub (AS) took an oath to subject his wife to 100 whip lashes, in a bid to fulfill the oath, picked up a grass with 100 blades and whipped his wife once with it, justifying having lashed his wife 100 times. 

Allah or His prophet did not anywhere reveal that Prophet Ayyub made a promise to whip his wife a hundred times and, there is no reason to believe something similar alluded to in this verse.

In this verse it is merely said ‘beat’ and not “beat your wife’. This is their own addition.

It is said in this verse, ‘pick a handful of grass’ and not hundred blades of grass. 

These people do not have the basic knowledge that promises like beating a wife a hundred times need not be fulfilled at all. 

On going through this verse and those before it, we come to understand the Almighty makes some arrangements to cure Prophet Ayyub after he was afflicted with ailments.

What does the words ‘ stamp the ground beneath with your feet, this is the cool bathing place, a drink’ mean? This can mean as follows:

Commanding Prophet Ayyub to kick the ground beneath his feet, wherein a water spring is created for him to drink and bathe, is the explanation that can be offered here.

Conveying that Prophet Ayyub was cured of the ailment by drinking the water from there and taking a bath, Allah says as a continuation ‘pick a handful of grass and beat’. 

Then a question arises, where is the necessity for the words ‘do not break promises’. This is directed towards him for not fulfilling a vow due to severe illness. And since he is relieved of the illness Allah wants to execute it now. One is a remedy for his illness, and the other is the reminder of an unfulfilled promise.

 This is the message conveyed here. In this verse we find Allah praising him as a person with a lot of patience, whereas these people portray him as an impatient person with having assaulted his wife.