Tafseer of The letter Saad · Saad · 38:41
And remember Our servant Job, when he called to his Lord, "Indeed, Satan has touched me with hardship and torment."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His statement, exalted is He: وَاذْكُرْ عَبْدَنَا أَيُّوبَ إِذْ نَادَى رَبَّهُ أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الشَّيْطَانُ بِنُصْبٍ وَعَذَابٍ (41) ("And remember Our servant Ayyūb, when he called upon his Lord: Indeed, Satan has afflicted me with hardship and torment")
He, exalted be His remembrance, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: ( وَاذْكُرْ ) ("And remember") likewise, O Muḥammad, Our servant Ayyūb إِذْ نَادَى رَبَّهُ ("when he called upon his Lord") seeking help from Him in the trial that afflicted him: O my Lord, ( أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الشَّيْطَانُ بِنُصْبٍ ) ("indeed, Satan has afflicted me with hardship").
The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of His statement ( بِنُصْبٍ ) ("with hardship"). Most reciters of the cities, except for the reciter Abū Jaʿfar, read it ( بِنُصْبٍ ) with a ḍamma on the nūn and a sukūn on the ṣād. Abū Jaʿfar read it with a ḍamma on both the nūn and the ṣād, and it is also related from him with a fatḥa on the nūn and the ṣād. Nuṣb and naṣab stand on equal footing with ḥuzn and ḥazan (sorrow), ʿudm and ʿadam (lack), rushd and rashad (right guidance), and ṣulb and ṣalab (hardness).
Al-Farrāʾ used to say: when the first letter takes a ḍamma, it is not made heavy [with a fatḥa on the second], for they have arranged them according to two patterns: when they give the first letter a fatḥa, they make [the second] heavy, and when they give the first letter a ḍamma, they make it light. He said: and some of the Arabs recited to me:
Indeed, were the mother of the two Ḥumaydids to send out a forager seeking provision, she would have become rich without misery or distress (juḥd).
This comes from their saying "jaḥida ʿayshuhu" (his livelihood became straitened): when it becomes narrow and harsh. He said: and when he said juḥd, he made it light [by giving the first letter a ḍamma].
One of the philologists among the Basrans said: al-naṣab means torment. He said: the Arabs say "anṣabanī" (it distressed me): it tormented me and brought me suffering. He said: and some say "naṣabanī." He cited in support of his statement the verse of Bishr ibn Abī Khāzim as evidence:
A torment (naṣb) from Umayma that brought suffering has visited you, like one of grief whose sorrow has not yet subsided, but which will go.
He said: by al-naṣb is meant: trial and evil. To this also belongs the statement of al-Nābigha of the Banū Dhubyān:
Leave me to a tormenting (nāṣib) care, O Umayma, and to a night through which I struggle, its stars slow to withdraw.
