"And take in your hand a bunch of grass and strike with it and do not break your oath." Al-Hasan said: The wife of Ayyub had approached Satan in a certain matter and called upon Ayyub to approach him. So he swore by Allah that if Allah were to restore him to health, he would strike her one hundred lashes, although he had no intention of striking her with anything specific. He remained in that affliction until Allah permitted him to supplicate and his favor and reward from Allah were complete. Then the revelation came to him from Allah. His wife was a Muslim woman who had taken good care of him and held a high status with Allah. So Allah revealed to him to take in his hand a dighth—and the dighth means to take a handful. Some said: It is of wheat stalks, and there were one hundred stalks. Others said: It is of rushes, and the rush is the sedge plant. He was to strike her with it once, and he did so.

Muhammad said: It is narrated that the wife of Ayyub said to him: "If you were to draw near to Satan and slaughter a kid for him [it might ease your suffering]." He replied: "Not even a handful of dust." Therefore, he swore that he would strike her if he were healed.