The 25 Prophets: (18) Yunus (AS) (Jonah)

YUNUS (AS) (JONAH)

He is Yunus bin Mataa, ancestor of Ibrahim (AS), but details of his lineage have not been mentioned as for other Prophets. Because he was swallowed by a large Fish or Whale, he was also known as Dha-Nuun; the man of the Fish or the Whale.

God sent him as a Prophet to the people of Assyrian capital, Naynawaa (Nineveh), on the left bank of river Dijla (Tigris) in Iraq opposite the city of Mosul.

He was from the Bani Israiyl and when he was sent to these people he was thirty years old. The population of Naynawaa was more than one hundred and twenty thousand. He lived with them for thirty-three years preaching and advising them to worship the one God and leave the worship of idols; but they gave him a deaf ear. However, he continued with his mission, and his people, stubborn as they were, called him a liar and wanted to beat him and none believed him. God then told him to warn his people that they would get His wrath after three days if they continued like this.

When Yunus (AS) saw that his people did not want to listen to him, he left them and promised them that God’s punishment would be on them after three days. Discouraged at the apparent failure of his mission, he departed in anger. He should have remained in the most disappointing circumstances, and should have relied on the power of God; for God had power over Naynawaa and over the Messenger He had sent to Naynawaa. He left the town with great anger, without waiting for God’s instructions and went away to the sea and took a boat.

He ran away from the punishment that was to come to his people, thinking that God would not punish him for what he did. God says in this verse of the Holy Quraan:

And remember Dha-Nuun, when he departed in wrath. He imagined that We had no power over him! (Al-Anbiyaa (xxi) 87)

After Yunus (AS) left the town, the signs of God’s wrath over the people of Naynawaa started. A very black cloud appeared above the town, and from it came sparks of fire. The chiefs of the town gathered together in an emergency session to discuss the matter. They knew that this was none but the punishment from God that Yunus (AS) had promised would come; the same sort of punishment that was sent to the people of Luut (AS).

The chiefs said: “What Yunus had said was right, this is definitely the punishment he had promised us would come. There is no way out of this except to repent and ask God for his mercy.”

Therefore they repented and God forgave them for the time being. There were no people in the past who were warned of God’s punishment and believed except the People of Yunus (AS); the whole nation of over one hundred thousand who were in sin believed, so they profited from their faith.

In the meantime as Yunus (AS) was in the boat which was fully laden, met foul weather and it almost capsized. The sailors, according to their superstition, wanted to find out who was responsible for the ill-luck; said: “In this boat one of us has a bad omen, we shall therefore have to take a vote to see who that person is. Whoever it is, has to be cast off to the sea, otherwise this storm would not clear.” They took the ballot three times, and in all the three times the ballot fell on Yunus (AS). Therefore they decided to throw him out to sea as he was a man of bad omen in the storm.

At this moment Yunus (AS) realized that what he had done back there in his town was wrong and that this was God’s punishment to him. He said to himself: “I should not have left my people, I should have instead waited for God’s instruction before leaving. This is the punishment I am getting for that.” He repented and asked for God’s forgiveness. However, God wanted to punish him for what he did.

Yunus (AS) therefore stood at the edge and jumped into the sea, and immediately after he jumped the storm stopped. It was a dark night and he swam against the waves; then a huge fish, possibly a whale, swallowed him alive. He thus remained alive in the fish’s belly like a prisoner in a dark cell; he prostrated and prayed to God saying: “O my Lord! I have taken in here a praying place that no one had prayed in it before this. There is no God but You, glory to You! I was indeed wrong!” He remained there in the darkness of the fish’s belly, darkness of the night and darkness of the deep sea, praying for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

This was to be the burial place and the grave for Yunus (AS). If he had not repented, he could not have got out of the body of the creature that had swallowed him, until the Day of Resurrection, when all the dead would be raised up. It is said that he remained therein for about forty days, until one day the Angels said to God: “O our Lord! We have heard a very strange voice coming from the earth.”

God said: “Indeed that is my servant Yunus, he has gone against my wishes and I am punishing him. He is now a prisoner inside the belly of a fish in the deep sea.”

Here the Angels asked their Lord to forgive him, for he was a God fearing man who was always praying. Therefore God instructed the fish to come ashore and Yunus (AS) came out of its belly still alive.

Yunus (AS) came out of the fish’s belly on a naked shore, a place where there was nothing, no trees or vegetation, no animals and no life at all. He was in a state of sickness; his body was all covered with wounds, his flesh dropping off from the effect of being in the fish’s belly for so long. Here God had caused to grow over him, a spreading plant of the Gourd kind. The Gourd was a shady creeper and its large leaves were to shade him from the sun, wind and sand; and also the leaves have a certain smell that kept away any flies. From it he ate the fruit, possibly melon, that nourished him.

With God’s will he got better and then went back to his people and started afresh in his teaching and preaching.

Reference: The Twenty five Prophets (The Parable of the Apostles Mentioned in the Holy Quraan)", by Nassir ibn Issa ibn Said Al-Kindy. (p142 -145)