And so he said in supplication not for the sake of his own comfort but for the sake of his worship of God: "O Lord! Harm has afflicted me; my remembrance of You with my tongue and my worship of You with my heart will suffer (21:83)." God Almighty then accepted this pure sincere disinterested and devout supplication in the most miraculous fashion. He granted to Job perfect good health and made manifest in him all kinds of compassion.
Corresponding to the outer wounds and sicknesses of Job we have inner sicknesses of the spirit and heart. If our inner being were to be turned outward and our outer being turned inward we would appear more wounded and diseased than Job. For each transgression that we commit and each doubt that enters our mind inflicts wounds on our heart and our spirit.
The wounds of Job were of such a nature as to threaten his brief worldly life but our inner wounds threaten our infinitely long everlasting life. We need the supplication of Job thousands of times more than he did himself. Just as the worms that arose from his wounds penetrated to his heart and tongue so too the wounds that transgression inflicts upon us and the temptations and doubts that arise from those wounds will penetrate our inner heart the seat of belief and thus wound belief. Penetrating too the spiritual joy of the tongue the interpreter of belief they cause it to shun in revulsion the remembrance of God and reduce it to silence.
Transgression penetrating to the heart will blacken and darken it until it extinguishes the light of belief. There is a path leading to unbelief within each transgression. Unless that transgression is swiftly obliterated by seeking God's pardon it will grow from a worm into a snake that gnaws on the heart.
For example a man who secretly commits a shameful transgression will fear the disgrace that results if others become aware of it. Thus the existence of angels and spirit beings will be hard for him to endure and he will long to deny it even on the strength of the slightest indication.
Similarly one who commits a major transgression deserving of the torment of Hell will desire the non-existence of Hell wholeheartedly and whenever he hears of the threat of Hell-fire. He will dare to deny it on the strength of a slight indication and doubt unless he takes up in protection the shield of repentance and seeking forgiveness.
A wide gate to destruction will be opened in front of him. The wretch does not know that although he is delivered by denial from the slight trouble of duty of worship he has made himself by that same denial the target for millions of troubles that are far more awesome. Fleeing from the bite of a gnat he welcomes the bite of the snake.
