Prophet Yunus (Jonah)

no matter how desperate and difficult a situation, a person must always trust in allah and ask him for help. as we mentioned in the previous section, musa, peace be upon him, never despaired when he was caught between the armies of pharaoh and the red sea, but he put his trust in allah. yunus, peace be upon him, also exemplifies such good

character.

although he was commissioned by allah to warn them, yunus, peace be upon him, left his people without warning them. upon this, allah put him to the test in several ways: first, he was thrown into the sea from the ship on which he sailed. then a giant fish swallowed him. this made him feel deep regret for his behaviour; he turned in repentance to allah, took refuge with him and prayed to him. this is related in the

qur'an as follows:

and [mention] the man of he fish [i.e., yunus], when he left in anger and thought we would not punish him. he called out in the pitch darkness: "there is no god but you! glory be to you!

truly i have been one of the wrongdoers."

we responded to him and rescued him from his grief. that is

how we rescue the believers. (surat al-anbiya: 87-88)

in the qur'an, allah relates what would have happened to him if he had not trusted in allah and prayed to him:

had it not been that he was a man who glorified allah, he would have remained inside its belly until the day they are raised again.

so we cast him up onto the beach and he was sick; and we caused a gourd tree to grow over him.

we sent him to a hundred thousand or even more. (surat as-

saffat: 143-147)

allah rescued yunus from a truly desperate situation. this is an obvious sign that one must never despair of allah's help. the experiences of yunus, peace be upon him, are a lesson for all believers: we must never slacken, no matter what hardship we face, and we must always pray to allah and ask for help from him.