Basic
أيوب
Surah: Al-Anbiya (83)
Ayyub Calls His Lord — Adversity and the Most Merciful
أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ ٱلضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرۡحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ
— الأنبياء الآية 83
Quranic context: Ayyub (peace be upon him) was afflicted with severe hardship in his body, wealth, and family — and his supplication became one of the shortest yet deepest in the Quran.
Context:
Ayyub neither suppressed his complaint nor despaired — he raised his need to the Most Merciful and trusted that the One so named would not abandon him. Prayer is sometimes simply: "I know You see me."
Context:
- "And Ayyub when he called to his Lord: Indeed adversity has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful." (Al-Anbiya 83)
- He did not explicitly request healing — he simply informed Allah of his state and described Him by His mercy
- Commentators note that supplicating through Allah attribute most relevant to one need is among the highest forms of entreaty
- "So We responded to him and removed what afflicted him of adversity, and We restored his family and the like thereof with them." (Al-Anbiya 84)
Ayyub neither suppressed his complaint nor despaired — he raised his need to the Most Merciful and trusted that the One so named would not abandon him. Prayer is sometimes simply: "I know You see me."
Source: Ibn Kathir (5/354); Al-Tabari (17/73); Al-Sadi
Test Yourself
Why did Ayyub not explicitly request healing in his supplication, and what is the rhetorical wisdom of its wording?
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