The Patience of Ayyoub

The Patience of Ayyub

Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi

Opening Praise and Declaration of Faith

الحَمْدُ للهِ سَابِغِ النِّعَمِ وَخَالِقِ الإِنْسَانِ مِنْ بَعْدِ العَدَمِ فَالْحَمْدُ ثُمَّ الحَمْدُ ثُمَّ الحَمْدُ لَكَ حَمْداً كَثِيراً طَيِّباً يَا رَبِّ لَكَ أَعْطَيْتَنَا خَيْراً كَثِيراً رَبَّنَا سَتَرْتَ عَنْ كُلِّ مَا وَرَاءَ عُيُوبِنَا ثُمَّ الصَّلَاةُ بَعْدَ وَالتَّسْلِيمُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ المُصْطَفَى الكَرِيمِ إِنَّ الحَمْدَ للهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّداً عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]."

أما بعد

Introduction to the Stories of the Quran

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, Allah mentions in the Quran:

We narrate to you the best of all stories. So every story in the Quran is a story that is full of wisdom and full of morals and full of lessons. And in today's short khutbah I wish to remind ourselves of one of the stories of the Quran that Allah specifically mentions and tells us to think about it.

The Story of Prophet Ayyub

And that is the story when Allah says: Remember the story of our servant Ayyub. Remember and think about the story of our servant Ayyub. Allah calls Ayyub: What a great servant was he. He kept on returning to Allah. And Allah mentions his story. And then he says in that story: There is wisdom and benefit for people of intelligence.

So what is the story of Ayyub? And how can we benefit from that story?

Background of Prophet Ayyub

The prophet Ayyub, in English he's called Job. The prophet Ayyub was from the descendants of Ishaq (peace be upon him). And he was sent to a group of people called the Edomites. And they were a semitic race who lived in what is today Transjordan. And his people believed in him.

Along with his prophethood, Allah also gave him plenty of wealth. Not every prophet was wealthy. Not every prophet was given of this world. Ayyub was given of this world along with being a prophet. And

every type of blessing you can think of: Money, gold, silver. Lots of land, animals. Along with this his wife was of the descendants of Yusuf. And she was a righteous lady. And his wife blessed him with, they say, up to a dozen children.

The Beginning of the Test

So he had deen and dunya. And the people of the town would look at him and say: What an amazing servant of Allah. He is a prophet and a worshipper. And a messenger. And he has wealth and ni'mah. What an amazing servant.

But Allah decided to test Ayyub. And raise his ranks. And through his story draw lessons for us. And so Ayyub (peace be upon him) was afflicted with diseases of all types. Some say leprosy. Others say a skin disease. But every type of disease imaginable. And his skin color changed. And there were blisters and pus across his body until he became a spectacle and a pain, a sore for the eyesight.

The Loss of Worldly Blessings

Along with this, things happened to his wealth and crops. A disease came and ravished all of his animals overnight. And then a fire came and all of his land became completely gone and devoid. And then Allah tested him by taking all of his children away. And so in a short period of time Ayyub went from being wealthy and healthy and having deen and dunya to take all of his dunya away. And all that he has now is the deen.

The People's Reaction

And the people of the town began talking, and this is the way of people. They have nothing better to do than talk. And they said: What an evil person Ayyub is. He must have done a very bad sin for Allah to take all of his wealth away, all of his children away. He must be a very evil person, or else why is he being tested in this way? And so his friends abandoned him. His colleagues left him. And he and his wife became alone after they were the center of attention.

The Wife's Sacrifice

So much so that his money began to wither away. And his wife had to go and find menial jobs. Chores, cleaning people's houses, so that she could get some money to feed Ayyub (peace be upon him).

And one time his wife came - as the days went into months and the months turned into years - one time his wife came to Ayyub and she said: Oh servant of Allah, you are a prophet. Why don't you ask Allah to get rid of all of these problems? Take us back to where we were. Why don't you ask Allah? Why do you just sit there and just do dhikr? Because Ayyub would always do dhikr. As Allah says: He would always come back and return to Allah. His tongue was always saying: Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illallah, Allahu akbar.

His wife said: Make dua for what you need. Don't just do dhikr.

Ayyub's Wise Response

And so he said: Oh servant of Allah, oh lady servant of Allah, tell me, how many years did we live in wealth and peace and harmony? How many years were we blessed and fortunate? She said: 70 years. So for 70 years Ayyub lived the life.

Ayyub then said to her: Oh lady servant of Allah, for 70 years you never complained about Allah's blessings once. Now for a few years we're going through troubles and trials, and you want to complain? For 70 years you ignored - you're just happy taking, taking, taking. Now that Allah has tested us for a few years, shouldn't we be thankful for those 70 as well? Look at the whole life that Allah has given us. Why are you complaining when Allah has blessed us with so many good years? If we have a few difficult years, okay, Allah is testing us.

And so he consoled his wife.

The Test Intensifies

But the years kept on going more and more and more. Some say maybe even 10 years went by. And something happened. The books of hadith and seerah and tafsir don't mention what, but something happened. What it is Allah knows best. But it seems, and Allah knows best, that perhaps shaitan came to the wife of Ayyub and tried to strike a deal with her that if you do something for me, if you worship me, if you exalt me, then I will cure Ayyub. Perhaps something like this. Some type of wrong thing that shaitan was basically tempting the wife of Ayyub, that if you worship me then I will bring Ayyub back to how he was.

So she might have gone to her husband and she might have made this offer: Why don't we do this and we will get back? And Ayyub became angry at his wife. And Ayyub said that he was too weak to move he's lying down, he's sick and what not. He said: I swear by Allah - he made an oath by Allah - I swear by Allah, oh lady, if I am ever cured, then you shall be lashed 100 times. How dare you tell me to go to shaitan after having worshipped Allah!

So he made a vow. And he made an oath and a qasam. And as a prophet of Allah, he makes a qasam that is a big deal.

Complete Isolation

So the years go on and they're living in worse and worse circumstance. So much so, his body began to emit an odor. And the townspeople forced him to leave the town. So they had to set up a tent outside the town where he would live. No food, no water, no family. After living in a mansion, after being blessed

with everything, now he is being rejected by his own people and told to leave. And so his wife set up a tent for him. And she would go do menial chores and come back and then just feed whatever food.

But then the townspeople became even more irritated and they said: Ayyub is bad luck. We don't want him around us anymore. They blamed everything on him. Even though as Muslims, we don't believe in bad luck, but they said: Ayyub is bad luck. Let us stop giving him anything. They weren't giving him anything. What was his source of income? His wife. So they made an agreement: We will not give his wife any chores to do so that she doesn't have any stipend. She couldn't find work for days and days. The food begins to wither away until there was no food at all.

The Wife's Ultimate Sacrifice

And then one day she showed up with a lot of food. Ayyub knows what's going on - that she's not finding any work. One day she showed up with a lot of food. Fruits and vegetables and meat. Ayyub said: Where did you get the money? She said: Don't worry, just eat.

So that lasted for a while. Then that too withered away. Then she's back to square one. Then all of a sudden the same incident happens - a lot of food comes. Ayyub says: By Allah, you must tell me where are you getting this food? Where is the money coming from? I know they're not hiring you out.

And so she lifted off her hijab, and lo and behold - and she was of the descendants of Yusuf, she was a righteous lady and of the descendants of Yusuf - and she had to shave her hair. And she had sold one hair lock, one forelock, to give as a wig to someone to get money. Now she had sold the other. So now she was without hair. So she had sold her own hair to the khidmah of her husband. And she was a patient and righteous lady. And she had served her husband throughout all of these years.

Ayyub's Dua

When Ayyub saw his wife having to even sell her hair, that is when he moved to make a dua. Subhanallah, a man can take a lot of things in his own body. A man can sacrifice much of his own. But when he sees his family having to sacrifice, when he sees his wife and children, then it really affects the person.

So Ayyub (peace be upon him), that is when he was moved to make dua to Allah for his situation. And so he raised his hand and the famous dua is in the Quran:

Ya Rabb, I have been touched with a calamity, and you are the most merciful of those who have mercy.

The Eloquence of This Dua

My dear brothers and sisters, this dua is of the most eloquent and of the pinnacle of iman and tawakkul and yaqeen. Even in the dua, there is no complaint. Even in the dua, Ayyub is not saying: I want

something from you, O Allah. He is simply saying: Ya Rabb, a calamity has touched me. And it wasn't a touch, it was an enveloping. It was a complete wrapping and cover up. Ya Rabb, I'm in some difficult circumstance. He wasn't in some - this is the worst calamity that anybody can imagine. His health, his children, his property - everything is gone. But adab with Allah, respect with Allah: Ya Rabb, I'm in a little bit of difficulty. And you, Ya Rabb, are the most merciful of all. That's all. Leave it to the mercy of Allah. I leave it to you, you have mercy of Allah. You see my situation.

Ya Rabb, a calamity has touched me, and you are the most merciful of all. Memorize this dua, brothers and sisters: Ya Rabb, a calamity has touched me, and you are the most merciful of all.

Allah's Immediate Response

Immediately when he made the dua:

Immediately Allah said: We responded to him. We gave him the ijabah right there. We responded to his dua right then and there.

And Allah says to Ayyub:

Kick with your feet. This is cold water - you can drink it and you can take a bath in it.

Ayyub could not walk. He could not stand up. His whole body is pus and all of the blisters, and everywhere, he is a sight for sore eyes. So Allah says to him: Just move your foot. Like Allah said to Ismail, like Allah said to the mother of Isa: Just do a little bit. Because even the miracle you need to put in the effort. Allah doesn't just send it down. You need to do something. Even the miracle is caused by something that we do. Then Allah brings the miracle.

The Miraculous Cure

ارْكُضْ بِرِجْلِكَ - Move your foot, just kick it on the sand. And all of a sudden where his foot was, it became: هَذَا مُغْتَسَلٌ بَارِدٌ وَشَرَابٌ - This is cold water coming out. You can drink it and you can take a bath in it.

So when he drank the water, all of the internal organs that were diseased were purified. When he jumped into the water, all the blisters and all of the pus became instantaneously cured. So much so that when his wife came back with some food, she found a handsome young man. And she said: O servant of Allah, have you seen the one whom Allah has tested by the name of Ayyub? I'm looking for him, where is he? Have you seen that مُبْتَلَى )the one whom Allah is testing(?