1. Ethical Absurdity and Legal Fiction:
Instructing Job to bundle 100 blades of grass to hit his wife once relies on a legal workaround (ḥīlah). This technical trick satisfies the literal wording of a vow while evading its moral intent, reducing divine law to mere semantics.
2. Degradation of the Biblical Narrative:
Unlike the Biblical Book of Job, which focuses on existential suffering and faith without spousal violence, this narrative introduces a domestic beating vow and a contrived loophole, trivializing the original story's grandeur.
Surah 38:44 commands Job to take a bundle of grass and strike with it so as not to break an oath he swore during his period of affliction.
The Quran Verse
Surah 38:44:
'Take in your hand a bundle of rushes and strike with it and do not break your oath.' Indeed, We found him patient...
According to Islamic tradition (Tafsir), during his agonizing illness, Job became angry with his wife and swore a sacred oath to give her 100 lashes once he recovered. Upon his miraculous healing, God did not want the righteous, long-suffering wife to be brutally beaten, but also required that Job not break his oath. God's solution was to tell Job to bind 100 thin blades of grass together and strike her just once.
Critics label this a blatant legal fiction (Hilah)—a theological loophole designed to technically satisfy the letter of a vow while completely violating its moral spirit. To the critic, an omniscient deity providing a technical workaround to facilitate the physical striking of a spouse reduces divine law to a game of semantics and completely misses the existential grandeur of the Biblical Book of Job.