Ma`rifat

The name of Job appears four times in four separate Quranic surahs. In Surah al-Nisāʾ (4:163), God affirms his prophetic status, enumerating him among the recipients of divine revelation. In Surah al-Anʿām (6:84), God identifies him as part of the Abrahamic lineage, enumerating him among the divinely guided and the ‘doers of good’ (muḥsinīn); subsequently, in Surah al-Anbiyāʾ (21:83–84), a concise account of his tribulation and existential resilience is delineated. Surah Sad (verses 41–44) features the most detailed account of his life in the Quran, delineating his ordeal and deliverance across four successive verses. Within this context, elucidating the nature of ‘Satanic affliction’, in verse 41 and the modalities of the ‘divine restoration of family’ in verse 43 of Surah Ṣād constitute two profound hermeneutical and theological cruces among Quranic commentators, often subject to substantive critiques regarding the doctrine of prophetic impeccability. Employing a descriptive-analytical methodology, this study aims to critically appraise exegetical paradigms concerning Satanic touch and familial restoration in the narrative of Job. The research yields two principal findings: First, attributing affliction to Satan is understood in terms of secondary causality, rendering the modernist equation of Satan with disease-causing microbes scientifically and exegetically untenable. Second, among the five exegetical possibilities regarding the restoration of Job’s family, the view that his family had perished and was granted miraculous revivification stands as the most plausible interpretation.