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Sura 38
Aya 44
44
وَخُذ بِيَدِكَ ضِغثًا فَاضرِب بِهِ وَلا تَحنَث ۗ إِنّا وَجَدناهُ صابِرًا ۚ نِعمَ العَبدُ ۖ إِنَّهُ أَوّابٌ

Muhammad Asad

[And finally We told him:] "Now take in thy hand a small bunch of grass, and strike therewith, and thou wilt not break thine oath!"1 - for, verily, We found him full of patience in adversity: how excellent a servant [of Ours], who, behold, would always turn unto Us!
  • In the words of the Bible (The Book of Job ii, 9), at the time of his seemingly hopeless suffering Job's wife reproached her husband for persevering in his faith: "Dost thou still retaip thine integrity? Curse God, and die." According to the classical Qur'an-commentators, Job swore that, if God would restore him to health, he would punish her blasphemy with a hundred stripes. But when he did recover, he bitterly regretted his hasty oath, for he realized that his wife's "blasphemy" had been an outcome of her love and pity for him; and thereupon he was told in a revelation that he could fulfil his vow in a symbolic manner by striking her once with "a bunch of grass containing a hundred blades or more". (Cf. 5:89 - "God will not take you to task for oaths which you may have uttered without thought.")