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Ayub (Job) The Prophet (PUH)
He is the son of Mus ben Razâh (Zerah) ben Ra`u'eel (Reuel) ben Esau
ben Isaac ben Abraham the friend of God (PUH), and his mother was the daughter
of Lot (PUH) and his residence was in Huran in the lands of Shem in Al-Baþniyyah,
part of Damascus as in Muruj Al-Ðahab for Al-Mas`udi. He had lot of
riches and children so God tested him in hisself and his money and his
children, but he had a beautiful patience, and then God gave him back whatever
he lost as a double and gave him back his health and his shape and his
strength, and he has a mosque there entitled by his name and the spring
that he washed his body from is known in the lands of Golan between Damascus
and Jordan, and this mosque and this spring are about three miles away
from the town of Nawâ, and the stone that he used to take refuge
in with his wife Rahmah is founded there in ground of that mosque, and
it might be a cave beside the mosque. It is said that Job did not eat his
food unless a poor or a wretch sit with him, and whenever he is offered
two matters to choose from he then chooses the one that is the hardest
for him. It is reported from trusted people that when he (PUH) was tested
for continuous seven years with his health, his smell never been bad and
his shape never misshaped and never suppurated or anything dirty happened
to him that could make people keep away from him and his body never got
worms in it, but people kept away from him because of his apparent poverity
and weakness for their ignorance for his true condition and his high place
for God. Whatever is said about him being sick and that made misshapes
in his body which made people keep away from him, this is something that
opposes the place of prophecy. This is to be discussed later on. They say
he was called Ayub (Job) because his health and his family and his riches
all gone and back again, and after the test and after thanking his Lord,
God got him back his health and his children and his money and gifted him,
for this he was called Job, which supposed to mean "getting back" as mentioned.
The truth is that his name is approperiate since he got back what he lost,
so he got back to his health and his fortune and his children after the
adversities, and they say he lived for ninty three years and he made his
son Hawmal the leader after him and then God sent his son Basheer ben Job
as a prophet after him and called him Ðul-Kifl and He ordered him to
call for God and His religion and believe in Him as One and he lived in
the lands of Shem all of his life until he died and he was then nonty five
years old, and Basheer made his son `Abdân a leader after him and
God sent after him Isaiah the prophet, as it is mentioned in Safeenat Al-Bihâr
by Al-Mohaddiþ Al-Qummi.
They also said that Job was a famous man known for his righteousness
and for his patience for this he was called The Righteous, and been an
example for patience. Some historians of muslim scholars mentioned, after
many opposing tales about Job that call for doubts about his existance,
he said: some said that Job is a hypothetical name and it was not his name
in any time and the story about him is a false story or the real story
had been complemented with legendary stories, and also he said also: we
say that he is a faithful man and one of God's servants that God tested
him with his riches and his family and his body and he had a beautiful
patience, so then God gave him a lot more than what he lost before and
praised him in His quran and made him a prophet. He continued: people say
about the adversity of Job some sayings that points out that he was sick
by some illness that misshaped him and made people keep away from him and
this is something that does not apply for the high place of prophecy, and
the scholars of Islam had agreed that prophets are saved from diseases
that keeps the people away from them. The answer to all of this is mentioned
afore and it will come in details what was attributed to the prophet (PUH)
and his Household (PUT), so just wait.
It is attributed to the prophet (PUH) that he said: the greatest people
in their adversities are the prophets, and then comes after them in order
the best and then the better, and God tested His viceroys with the great
adversities to make people calm about their adversities, and to make them
not to call for lordship when they see all of the fortunes and gifts given
from God to them, to make them know that mercy of God with its two types,
deserved or specialized, and to make them not to humiliate a weak man for
his weakness or a poor man for his poverity nor a sick for his disease,
and to make them know that God makes whoever He desires sick and whoever
He desires healthy at any time He desires by any how He desires for any
reason He desires, and make it as a sermon for any one He desires and as
misery for any one He desires, and as happiness for any one He desires,
and He, the Exalted, in all of that, just in His actions and wise in His
deeds and never do to His servants except what is beneficial for them and
there is no strength unless by Him. Whoever meditate through this speech
and was wise enough, he would know lot of the secrets of God's deeds with
His viceroys, and that God tested His servant Job (PUH) with the heaviest
of adversities that one can have and took away his life's ornamentations
but left for him his mind, his hearing, his sight and his tongue as a test
for him and to obtain the degree of his faith and to show wether he can
keep his faith or he would look for someone else other than his Creator,
and He, the Exalted, knows how much faith he had and knows his caution
to get the satisfaction of his Lord, but He tested him to raise him in
levels in this life and in the after-life and make him an example to be
followed by the rest of the creations and to show them that having patience
toward the adversities is rewarded with the greatest gifts and that His
viceroys are competing for this great level and so there are low and high
levels, and so God gave His servant Job many gifts and he thanked God for
them, then He took away the gifts one by another, and by each time Job
used to thank God as well and he knew that he was chosen by God for some
reason and so he increased his thanks with the increasing adversities and
he was absolutely satisfied for this, until people started to mock at him
and claimed that he deserved for all of that, but he kept on praising God,
and the Merciful Knower knew that the mocking of his enemies and their
claims that if only Job did not have evil in himself God would not do all
of that to him, and He knew that such talk was hurting him more than his
pains and sickness and so then He released his pains and gifted him again
with more than what he had as it is mentioned in the holy book in the chapter
of Al-Anbiyâ': And Job, when he cried unto his Lord, (saying): Lo!
adversity afflicteth me, and Thou art Most Merciful of all who show mercy.
Then We heard his prayer and removed that adversity from which he suffered,
and We gave him his household (that he had lost) and the like thereof along
with them, a mercy from Our store, and a remembrance for the worshippers(Al-Anbiyâ':83-84),
and in the chapter of Sâd: And make mention (O Muhammad) of Our bondman
Job, when he cried unto his Lord (saying): Lo! the devil doth afflict me
with distress and torment. (And it was said unto him): Strike the ground
with thy foot. This (spring) is a cool bath and a refreshing drink.And
We bestowed on him (again) his household and therewith the like thereof,
a mercy from Us, and a memorial for men of understanding. And (it was said
unto him): Take in thine hand a branch and smite therewith, and break not
thine oath. Lo! We found him steadfast, how excellent a slave! Lo! he was
ever turning in repentance (to his Lord)(Sâd:41-44).
So God told the prophet (PUH) about what happened with Job (PUH) and
the chapters of Al-Anbiyâ' and Sâd and advised him to remember
what happened to him and take sermons from his story and to teach his nation
about his story and reminds them about it to take wisdom his story, and
when his conditions went worse he raised his hands to his Lord with humiliation,
forgetting about what he faced of adversities and whatever he faced from
the devil's tricks and the devil's whispers to the people that made him
keep away from him and even kept him out from their houses with his wife
Rahmah and that got so heavy on Job and it was even harder in pain more
than his sickness, because his sickness was from God but what happened
with him with the people is a deed of the devil his followers, and the
damned used to come to Job and say to him: your sickness got so long in
time and your Lord does not have mercy on you, and then used to remind
him of what gifts and riches with children that he used to have and how
close he was to the people, and reminded him with his gatherings and caused
him to worry and being bored with confusion of thought, so he called for
his Lord to eliminate what was with him of troubles that caused by the
devil's whispers, and the damned was urging to make him fall in a sin,
but he (PUH) was aware of his tricks and kept on being patient and increased
in his faith in his Lord and that was a reason to raise up his adversities
and to be gifted from his Lord.
Next: The Back of Gifts From God to Job (PUH)