Indeed, We found him patient - an excellent servant. Indeed, he was one repeatedly turning back to Allah.
“Indeed, We found him patient - an excellent servant. Indeed, he was one repeatedly turning back to Allah.”
When Job became angry with his wife, he swore an oath he will lash her a hundred times, so I said to him: “O Job, take a bunch of stalks in your hand and hit her with them, to fulfil your oath. And do not break the oath you made”. So he took a bunch of stalks and hit her with them. I found him to be patient in what I afflicted him with.
The plain meaning, from Al-Mukhtasar fi at-Tafsir
وَخُذْ بِيَدِكَ ضِغْثًا فَٱضْرِب بِّهِۦ وَلَا تَحْنَثْ ۗ إِنَّا وَجَدْنَٰهُ صَابِرًا ۚ نِّعْمَ ٱلْعَبْدُ ۖ إِنَّهُۥٓ أَوَّابٌ
We said, "And take in your hand a bunch of grass and strike with it and do not break your oath." Indeed, We found him patient, an excellent servant. Indeed, he was one repeatedly turning back to Allah.
What does Quran 38:44 mean?
The verdict comes at the end of Ayyub’s (peace be upon him) story — after the affliction, after the spring struck from the ground, after his family was restored to him with the like of them again. Two things are named: that he was found patient, and that he kept turning back. The commentators treat the second as the reason for the first; patience held because it was constantly renewed at its source.
Written from Al-Mukhtasar fi at-Tafsir