Lessons Learned from the Story of Prophet Ayoub A.S. PART-1
(Najamuddin GHanghro, Karachi (original from Larkana))
"Truly! We found him patient.
How excellent a slave! Verily, he was ever oft-returning in repentance to Us" (Saad
38:44).
Prophet Ayoub (Alaihi-salam – May be peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
was one of Allah’s very sincere worshippers. We find in his story many lessons
that we can reflect upon to assess our relationship with Allah. This story
especially should make us question whether all our sincerity and worship for
Allah is dependent on His blessings on us.
The following story was documented by Ibn Kathir.
Prophet Ayoub (A) was Allah’s thankful, repentant, patient and steadfast
worshipper. Allah the Almighty has praised Him in the Quran thus:
"Truly! We found him patient. How excellent a slave! Verily, he was ever
oft-returning in repentance to Us" (Saad 38:44).
Ibn Kathir narrates that once Iblis (satan) heard an angel praising Ayoub (A) to
other angels, extolling his noble character, patience and remembrance of Allah
and describing him as “the best creature on earth today, and an excellent model
for the worshippers of Allah.” The angel also added that Allah had blessed him
with long life and plenty of riches, yet he was never haughty or selfish. His
family, servants, the needy and the poor, all had a share in his good fortune.
He bought slaves to set them free and made those who received his charity feel
as if they were doing him a favor.
Overhearing all this, Iblis became annoyed and planned to tempt Ayoub (A) and
lead him to disbelief. First, he tried to distract him from his prayers by
whispering to him about the good things in life, but as a true believer, Ayoub
would not let evil thoughts tempt him. Iblis, then tried to attribute ulterior
motives to his constant glorification of Allah, projecting his worship as being
motivated from greed to safeguard his wealth. Iblis thus said to Allah, "If You
deprive him of his wealth You will find that he will no longer mention Your name
and his praying will stop."