{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/jon00.htm","path":"isl/pro/jon00.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/jon00.htm","text":"They mentioned that God sent him to the people of Nineveh and it is a village\nthat belongs to Al-Mosul in Iraq, and it is also an agricultural village\nnear Kufa and it is now beside the shrine of Al-Husain the son of the prince\nof believers, the martyt of Karbala, may greetings and blessings be upon\nthem who fell there and peace, and Yunus ben Matt\u00e2's (Jonah ben Amittai)\nstory was told by God in many chapters in His holy book, in Al-Nis\u00e2',\nAl-An`\u00e2m, Yunus, Al-Anbiy\u00e2', Al-S\u00e2ff\u00e2t, Al-Qalam..etc.\nHe is also the man of the whale and Dhu'n-Nun [Arabic: Nun = Whale], and\nperhaps he is one of the Israelites and nothing is known about him except\nthat he is the son of Amittai as it was mentioned in narrations and interpretations.\nAs it was mentioned, he was sent to the people of Nineveh and he was thirty\nyears old that time and they counted as many as one hundred thousand or\nmore, and some said one hundred and thirty thousand, and he lived with\nthem for thirty three years calling them all the time for God and to obey\nHim and none did answer except of two men, a worshipper and a scholar,\nand the worshipper's name was Melikha and the scholar's name was Rubeel,\nand he (Rubeel) was a man from the house of knowledge and prophecy with\nwisdom and he was an old friend for Jonah before God sent him with prophecy,\nand Melikha, or Tenukha was a weak man, a woshipper that worships all his\ntime and had no knowledge nor wisdom, and Rubeel was a shepherd and Tenukha\nwas a wood-cutter, and Rubeel had a place near Jonah another than that\nof Tenukha for his wisdom and his old friendship.\nThe people of Nineveh were extremely tyrant and Jonah wanted to pray\nagainst them, and the worshipper pointed out that he (Jonah) must pray\nagainst them and the scholar forbade him and said: God doesn't like to\ndestroy His slaves even if they were disbelievers and they are appointed\nto the doomsday and their reward would be in hell, and they are in this\nlife reproducing and working on earth and others are having benefits with\ntheir works and their crafts and God wants to give time to His servants,\nand God shall answer your pray upon them and they have among them the handicapped\nand the children, and by their destruction animals would be so also and\nthe whole land would be destroyed by the destruction of servants. It is\nmentioned that he (Jonah) didn't listen to him and was not convinced, and\nthe worshipper was insisting on praying against them, and then he prayed\nagainst them to be destroyed and God answered his prays in a special time\nthat was appointed by Him and that was after forty days after the pray\nand after warning them, and perhaps his pray was on the fifteenth of Ramadhan\n[9th month in lunar calendar], and it is mentioned that the day of the\npunishment was to be on wednesday in the middle of Shaww\u00e2l [10th\nmonth in the lunar calendar] and he foretold them about it, but they didn't\ncare about it, but the scholar remained between them and warned them against\nGod's wrath, and when it was the time, Jonah and the worshipper went out\nof the village waiting for the punishment to be done, and when the signs\nof the punishment appeared, the scholar ordered them to repent and be faithful\nand to go out from the village with humiliation and crying for God, and\nto separate children from their mothers and animals from their offsprings\nand to cry to God to forgive them, and they did all that and the scholar\nwas with them in all of their conditions, and at the appointed time, the\npunishment was revealed as a yellow wind the came from the east while they\nwere sitting as we described before, and the punishment turned around over\ntheir heads and then spreaded in the mountains and they were saved from\nthe punishment.\nAnd in the second day, thursday the sixteenth of Shaww\u00e2l from\nthat year, Jonah and the worshipper Melikha came to see what happened to\nthem and they saw them in the best conditions and nothing was done to them,\nand for this they say that God never stopped a punishment except for the\nfolk of Jonah, and Jonah used to call them back to the faith but they refuse\nand he prayed against them and his pray was answered but then it was avoided\nfor what we mentioned before, and then Jonah went out with anger and reached\nthe seashore and saw a ship with a cargo that was near the land so he asked\nits owners to carry him with them and they answered him and made him ride\nwith them, and when the ship moved and been in the middle of the sea, a\nlarge whale appeared for them in front of the ship and blocked its sailing\nand Jonah moved from his place to the other side and found out that the\nwhale was opening his mouth and wants to swallow him and Jonah ran away\nwith fear, and they said that someone in the ship shouted out and said:\none who did a sin let him show himself, but none did answer him and then\nthey made a lot and the arrow pointed at Jonah and they were sure that\nhe was the sinner so he threw himself into the sea and the whale swallowed\nhim, so God said: And lo! Jonah verily was of those sent (to warn), When\nhe fled unto the laden ship, And then drew lots and was of those rejected;\nAnd the fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy; And had he not been\none of those who glorify (Allah), He would have tarried in its belly till\nthe day when they are raised; Then We cast him on a desert shore while\nhe was sick; And We caused a tree of gourd to grow above him; And We sent\nhim to a hundred thousand (folk) or more, And they believed, therefor We\ngave them comfort for a while(Al-S\u00e2ff\u00e2t:139-148).\nIt is probable that the whale casted him on a desert shore as it is\nshown in the holy phrase, and it is the land of no plants and for this\nGod planted for him a gourd tree to shade him against the sun's heat because\nhe was casted while he was sick, and he was swallowed while he was angry\nand confused so he is considered a sick as well, and he remained in the\nbilly of the whale for three days, and some said nine hours, and others\nsaid seven days..etc. They say that Jonah was delighted for the gourd tree\nand out of sudden there were an insect that were eating its base so it\ndried out and the wind carried it away and he was sad for this, and then\na call from God came saying: are you sorry for a gourd that doesn't care\nof itself and the Creator wouldn't care about a village made of one hundred\nthousand or so that He wants to guide them from their wrong-doing and likes\nto avoid them from His punishment? Then God sent him back to them and they\nbelieved in him and they enjoyed the life for some time.\nand Jonah for the people of the Scriptures [meaning jews and christians]\nis called Yonan ben Amittai [in Hebrew he is called Yonah, so the name\nseems in Aramaic], and he had a book with advices and regulations, and\nincluded in it that God ordered him to go to Nineveh because their evil\nis growing, and so then Yonan went to escape to a village called Tarshish\nand so he stayed in Y\u00e2f\u00e2 (Yafo) and there he found a ship that\nwould sail to Tarshish, so when the ship sailed while he was on it, God\nsent a severe wind that made the ship almost sinking with everyone on it,\nand everyone of them was calling his god while Yonan was sleeping in the\nbase of the ship so they woke him up and they made a lot to know who was\nthe reason of the anger of God and the lot pointed to him and then he told\nthem about his story and they wanted to go back to the shore but they couldn't,\nso he pointed out for them to throw him into the sea so that the anger\nof God may fled away from them, and they did so and a great whale swallowed\nhim then the sea calmed down after, and the content is almost the same\nfor the truth for which was founded in interpretations and history.\nThen, most of what was mentioned of stories and opinions are from the\nIsraelites and some of what was mentioned in them is against what was mentioned\nin Quran, and they mentioned whatever seemed right in their opinions and\nornamented what they understood and manipulated of clues that they hanged\non and whoever is interested in their sayings let him check their books,\nand in the chapter of Al-Qalam it was said to the prophet (PUH): But wait\nthou for thy Lord's decree, and be not like him of the fish, who cried\nout in despair, Had it not been that favour from his Lord had reached him\nhe surely had been cast into the wilderness while he was reprobate, But\nhis Lord chose him and placed him among the righteous(Al-Qalam:48-50).\nIn another chapter: If only there had been a community (of all those that\nwere destroyed of old) that believed and profited by its belief as did\nthe folk of Jonah! When they believed We drew off from them the torment\nof disgrace in the life of the world and gave them comfort for a while(Yunus:98),\nand what is understood from the holy phrase is that the previous nations\nthat disbelieved in God, when a punishment was revealed on them, their\nfaith would be useless except for the folk of Jonah for their faith was\nof benefit for them when the punishment was revealed upon them and God\ncarried it away from them, and also God said: And (mention) Dhu'n-Nun,\nwhen he went off in anger and deemed that We had no power over him, but\nhe cried out in the darkness, saying: There is no Allah save Thee. Be Thou\nGlorified! Lo! I have been a wrong-doer, Then we heard his prayer and saved\nhim from the anguish. Thus we save believers(Al-Anbiy\u00e2':87-88).\nThe meaning is, and only God knows, in God's saying \"deemed that We\nhad no power over him\" that he deemed that God will relief him when he\ngoes out from his people and he wouldn't have to tell his message, as in\nHis saying: But whenever He trieth him by straitening his means of life,\nhe saith: My Lord despiseth me(Al-Fajr:16), and \"cried out in the darkness\"\n[note that darkness has no plural in English but in Arabic it has and the\nplural is mentioned in the holy phrase], means the darkness of the night\nand the darkness of the sea and the darkness in the billy of the whale\nso they are three levels of darkness, and when he went off in anger, he\nhad anger against his people and for God because they were tyrants and\nstubborn and forbid him to had have anger against God! how come and he\nis the infallible prophet and avoided from doing anything against obeying\nGod, and he is a holy prophet that can't deem wrongly about his Creator\naccording to the justice and the Godly wisdom, or even claim that He is\nnot able to deal with him or with others, but everyone is under His rule\nwithout a doubt and everything against this should be interpreted in a\nright way, in opposition to the ideas of some ignorants who said that he\nwas angry against God and for this he was punished and rejected and swallowed\nby the whale. No doubt that such thing and such ideas do oppose the idea\nof infallibility and suggests that he didn't know the power and the ability\nof God in such a way that he would not be forgiven for, and this is as\nit is said in the tales of Abdul-Wah\u00e2b (Al-Najj\u00e2r).\nWe say that there are levels for the gifts and characteristics for\nthe prophets and for the viceroys and also the believers, so they are different\nin the levels of their good nature like patience, how much they depend\non God, complete satisfaction and the presence of mind, and all infallible\npeople that gather around the faith of God share the complete knowledge\nof His greatness and His will with His mercy and forgiveness and how can\nHe punish the rebellious people, and people in such things do differ in\nevery manner and the difference between them is necessary such as the difference\nin their faces and shapes and their ages and their possessions and their\nchildren and their understanding and so on of such things in deep inside\nor in obvious for every man of a brain that is able to think and differentiate,\nand God made them different for purposes that only He knows, so Jonah ben\nAmittai doesn't have what Moses and Job had of patience and not what Abraham\nhad of dependance on God and no prophet has what is for the beloved to\nGod, Muhammad ben `Abdullah may peace be upon him and on his Household,\nfrom all the characteristics and describtions. It is probable then that\nJonah (PUH) was weaker than other prophets in such a way that does not\nconflict with the state of infallibility. So, he called his people for\nthirty three years as it was told and they didn't listen to him and didn't\ncare about him so he got bored of them and he prayed against them and then\ngot out of their lands because of their bad treatment with him. Then he\nwas tested by being thrown into the sea and being swallowed by the whale,\nbut his faith didn't shake and the connection to his God was not cut and\nhe never stopped to serve his Lord, and he was sanctifying God while he\nwas inside the whale and fearing His punishment and saw nothing but God\nand seeking no one but Him, and he feared God so much that no one can imagine\nhow much it was, so may peace be upon him and on our prophet and his Household.\nAs attributed to Al-B\u00e2qir (PUH) he said: Jonah ben Amittai went\naway from his people and then got back to them with prophecy and a message\nand they believed in him for four weeks, then he (PUH) said: the punishment\narrived on wednesday in the middle of Shaww\u00e2l [10th month in lunar\ncalendar] and the punishment also went away from them in the same day,\nso then Jonah went away with anger on thursday so it took him seven days\nto reach the sea and then spent seven days inside the whale, and spent\nseven days under the tree in the desert and then it took him seven days\nto get back to his people, so the total period of time for his going and\ncoming was twenty eight days, and then he came to them and they believed\nin him and followed him, and for this God did say: If only there had been\na community (of all those that were destroyed of old) that believed and\nprofited by its belief as did the folk of Jonah! When they believed We\ndrew off from them the torment of disgrace in the life of the world and\ngave them comfort for a while(Younus:98).\nAlso attributed to Al-B\u00e2qir (PUH): the punishment was revealed\nupon the folk of Jonah so that they were able to touch it by their spears,\nso then they wore garments and wools and put robes in their necks and the\nashes upon their heads and all of them shouted with one voice to their\nLord and said: we believed in the God of Jonah, and then God gave them\na relief and pushed the punishment away from them up to the mountains,\nand in the morning Jonah went to them and he thought that they were doomed\nbut he found them in a good situation, so he got angry and got out until\nhe got into a ship with two men, and then the ship faced storms and the\ncaptain said: O folks! my ship has a wanted man, and then Jonah said: I\nam the one, and he stood up to throw himself and he saw then the fish opening\nits mouth and he got afraid and the two men stopped him and said to him:\nyou are alone and we are two men, and they made a lot and the arrow pointed\nto him, and at that time the law was that if the arrow pointed three times\nin the same direction then it cannot be wrong, and so he threw himself\nand the whale swallowed him and it journeyed with him the seven seas up\nto the \"sea kept filled\" and there Korah is being tortured..etc. [\"sea\nkept filled\" or \"the filled sea\" is a name used in Quran in the chapter\nof Al-Toor(6) for a sea. Could it be the Mediterranean?]\nThere is also some tidings concerning the father of Jonah, and he is\nthe one called Amittai, and as attributed to Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH) he said:\nonce David (PUH) said: O Lord tell me who is my companion in heaven, and\nthen God inspired to him: that is Amittai, the fahter of Jonah, he (PUH)\ncontinued: then he had a permission from God to visit him, so he went out\nwith his son Solomon until they reached his house, and found out that it\nwas made of palm leaves, and people told them that he (Amittai) is in the\nmarket, and they asked for him there and people told them to go to the\ncarpenters, and then they asked for him there and they were told that they\nare waiting for him to come back, so they sat down waiting for him with\nthe others and then he showed up with a bundle of woods upon his head,\nand then the people went to him and took off the woods from him, so he\nthanked God and said: whoever is willing to buy a perfume from me with\nan exchange of another? So then one man nagotiated the price and another\nincreased the price and so on until he bought it from someone, and then\nthey (David and Solomon) greeted him and he said to them: let's go home,\nand then he bought food with what he got and then he ground it and kneaded\nit into a paste and put it then into the fire and he sat talking with them,\nand then he got his bread when it was made and he broke it into halves\nand spreaded some salt on it and on his side he put a water carrier, and\nhe sat on his knees and took a piece, and when he put it into his mouth\nhe said: by the name of God, and when he swallowed it he said: thank be\nto God, and so he did until he finished, and then he took the water and\ndrank with mentioning God's name and when he finished he said: thank be\nto God, O Lord, whom did You give him what You gave to me? You fixed my\nvision and hearing and my body and made me strong so that I went to a tree\nthat I didn't plant and didn't care about, and You made it for my living,\nand You made someone to buy it from me and then I bought with its price\nsome food that I didn't plant, and You made me the fire so that it was\ncooked so well and You made me eat with desire so that I can be able to\nobey You, so thanks be to You, and then he cried. Then said David to Solomon:\nO son, let's go, for I didn't see someone that thank God as much as this\nman, and they got back from where they came. So may peace and prays of\nGod be upon our prophet and his Household and upon them as well and thank\nbe to God the Lord of the worlds.","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Yunus (Jonah...","type":"page"}