Prophets are those who came from Allah to guide humanity.
In all eras, Prophets appeared to guide people who were living by following their own desires onto the right path.
Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) was one of the Prophets who appeared in this manner. He was among the Prophets who were tested the most. History states that his era was between 600–800 BC.
There was a town called Nineveh on the banks of the Tigris (Dajla) River in Iraq. More than one hundred thousand people lived in that town.
The people of Nineveh at that time were of massive stature. Their feet alone were three feet long. All these people worshipped idols and were deeply immersed in all kinds of sins. The king who ruled Nineveh once invaded the Israelites, took many of them as captives, and imprisoned them in Nineveh.
Hezekiah, the king of the Israelites at that time, consulted with the Prophet of that era, Isaiah, and chose Prophet Yunus (AS), sending him to Nineveh to rescue the Israelites from prison. Prophet Yunus (AS) took his wife and children with him and reached Nineveh.
Upon reaching Nineveh, Prophet Yunus (AS) felt deeply grieved to see the king and the people worshipping idols, drowning in sins, and witnessing the injustices happening there. He prayed to Allah for these people to find guidance.
Afterwards, he went to meet the king of Nineveh, declared that he had come as an envoy of the Israelites and as a Prophet of the Almighty and requested the king to abandon idol worship, worship only Allah the Creator, and release the unjustly imprisoned Israelites.
The king rejected the advice of Prophet Yunus (AS). For three days, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) kept requesting the king to abandon idol worship and release the Israelites.
The king spoke to Prophet Yunus insultingly and expelled him from the palace.
Prophet Yunus (AS) left the palace, went among the public, and preached the message of Monotheism (Tawhid).
However, the people mocked, ridiculed, and humiliated him; no one paid heed to the Prophet’s words.
Prophet Yunus (AS) relentlessly continued to invite the people towards the right path. Upon learning of this, the king ordered Prophet Yunus (AS) to be cast into prison.
They not only imprisoned Prophet Yunus (AS) but also tortured him by denying him food and water.
However, seeing that Prophet Yunus (AS) remained energetic and in excellent health without any sign of exhaustion, the prison guards were astonished and asked him about their doubt.
“We did not give you food to eat, nor water for your thirst. Yet, you are perfectly fine without any exhaustion! Tell us, what is the reason for this?” they asked. To this, Prophet Yunus replied, “Allah, my Creator, provides me with food from Paradise, which is why I am healthy.”
Hearing this with amazement, the prison guards asked, “In that case, if we also abandon idol worship and follow your path, will Allah help us in the same way?” Prophet Yunus (AS) replied, “Allah is Most Merciful. He helps everyone.” Upon hearing this, the prison staff embraced Islam and found the right path.
This news reached the king. Worrying about what would happen to his position if the general public also followed him, he summoned his ministers and consulted, “Shall we behead Yunus?”
The ministers advised, “No, Your Majesty! He seems to possess some mystical power. What if he returns to avenge us after his death? Therefore, we should exile him.” The king agreed and ordered Prophet Yunus (AS) to be exiled from Nineveh.
After leaving Nineveh, Prophet Yunus (AS) took his family and wandered through various places for some time.
Meanwhile, Allah sent ‘Wahy’ (divine revelation) commanding him to return to Nineveh and invite the people back to Allah. Therefore, Prophet Yunus (AS) re-entered Nineveh and began preaching Monotheism to the public.
This time, the people opposed him with even greater force. They pelted Prophet Yunus (AS) with stones and drove him away.
Consequently, Prophet Yunus’s (AS) entire body was covered in wounds. Nevertheless, disregarding the people’s opposition and afflictions, he patiently continued to invite them to the right path in that town for about thirty years.
Because of this, historians have written that after Prophet Nuh (Alaihis Salam), Prophet Yunus (AS) was the one who suffered the most persecution from his people.
In his nearly thirty years of effort, only two people accepted the Prophet’s call. Prophet Yunus (AS) consistently went to the people to guide them, while they continued to torment him.
In this situation, Prophet Yunus (AS) warned them, “If you persist in rejecting my call and committing injustices against me, Allah’s wrath will fall upon you.”
The people mocked Prophet Yunus (AS) saying, “What can Allah’s wrath do to us?”
Then Prophet Yunus (AS) warned, “Allah will rain fire upon you and destroy you.” The people mockingly asked, “When will this rain of fire come?”
“You mock out of ignorance of Allah’s supreme power; this is not good for you. I warn you one final time. Abandon this idol worship immediately, bow down to Allah, and align your actions with the right path. Otherwise, within forty days, a rain of fire will fall and destroy you all,” warned Prophet Yunus (AS). However, the townspeople paid no attention to it.
Therefore, praying, “O Allah! I have no hope that these people will accept the right path hereafter. Send a rain of fire upon them and destroy them!”, Prophet Yunus (AS) left Nineveh and went to sit atop a nearby mountain. Even today, that mountain in Iraq is called ‘Mount Yunus’.
“Ya Allah! As per the deadline of forty days I mentioned, send the rain of fire upon them and fulfill the promise I gave,” he prayed while sitting on the mountain. In this state, 39 days passed out of the forty-day deadline mentioned by Prophet Yunus (AS).
However, no harm befell the people. The king and the people fearing that something might happen on the fortieth day, they looked at the sky with a sense of dread as the dawn of the fortieth day broke. What they feared did not happen. Instead, a cool breeze blew. The king and the people rejoiced, and the king announced, “A fitting reward will be given to whoever finds and brings the liar Yunus.”
As the day progressed, the situation began to change. The cool breeze ceased, and a scorching wind began to blow. A short while later, crimson clouds began to appear in the sky. Unexpectedly, all the people began to panic. The king too was terrified and paralyzed with fear.
Fearing that they would all be destroyed by a rain of fire as Yunus had predicted, the king ordered the people to find and bring Yunus.
He commanded that if anyone found the Prophet, they should convey the message: “The king and the people have repented, we worship only Allah, and we follow the Prophet.” However, no one could find Prophet Yunus.
Not knowing what else to do, and seeing the fire-colored clouds still surrounding them, the king commanded the people, “I accept Allah as God. You too must accept Him. Let us all bow down to Allah in Sujud (prostration) and pray to be saved from these fire clouds.” Accordingly, the king and the people performed Sujud to Allah and began seeking forgiveness for their sins.
Allah, the Most Merciful, forgave the sins of those people, removed the fiery clouds, and helped them.
Consequently, all the people of Nineveh, including the king, began worshipping Allah alone. Allah also removed their hardships and enabled them to live comfortably.
Allah says about this in the Quran:
فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ أَمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيْمَانُهَا إِلَّا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ لَمَّا امَنُوا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ فِي الْحَيَوةِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَتَعَنْهُمْ إِلَى حِينٍ
“Then has there not been any city that believed so its faith would have benefited it except the people of Jonah (Yunus)? When they believed, We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in this worldly life and gave them enjoyment for a time.”
— Surah Yunus: 98
While Nineveh’s people repented and Allah averted the punishment from them, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) sat on the mountain, entirely unaware of this.
Prophet Yunus assumed that the king and the people of Nineveh must have been destroyed in the rain of fire. Therefore, with the intention of seeing the destroyed city of Nineveh, he descended the mountain and walked toward the town.
As he approached, he was bewildered to see that the town was completely undamaged and the people were living with even greater prosperity and happiness than before.
“Why did Allah not accept my prayer against the people of Nineveh? Those who caused me so much suffering are living peacefully without any punishment! Why didn’t Allah punish them?” Troubled and restless with such questions and confusion, and deciding never to face these townspeople again, he chose not to enter the town.
Instead, he took his wife and two children and started traveling away from the place in a state of distress. At that point, the Tigris (Dajla) River crossed their path.
They looked around to cross the river, but no boat was visible. Therefore, thinking they could cross the river by swimming, he left his wife sitting on the riverbank, carried his eldest son on his shoulder, swam across with great difficulty, and placed his son on the opposite bank.
He swam back to this side, placed his second son on his shoulder, and began swimming across the river. At that moment, the river’s current unexpectedly increased, making it difficult for Prophet Yunus to swim.
During that time, the second son he was carrying slipped and fell into the water. The river water swept the boy away. Stunned by this, while Prophet Yunus tried to save him, a wolf caught and dragged the eldest son away on the opposite bank.
Since the younger son had already been swept away by the water, he thought he could at least save the eldest son from the wolf. He swam swiftly to the opposite bank and chased after the wolf. After running and searching a great distance without finding his eldest son, he returned to the river.
Having lost two sons at the same time, he swam back across the river thinking he could at least save his wife, but when he checked the bank, his wife was gone.
He looked at the spot where he had left her standing. There were horse hoofprints there. He realized that bandits passing that way had abducted his wife. Having lost his entire family, he began to walk away from there all alone, consumed by grief and helplessness.
After traveling a long distance in this manner, the sea came into view. A ship was ready to depart there. Thinking he could go and live somewhere else, he obtained permission from the ship’s captain and boarded it.
The people on the ship asked Prophet Yunus, “Who are you? Where are you going?” To this, the Prophet replied, “I am a sinner, an orphan who has lost his wife and children, traveling without knowing where to go. I will go wherever Allah wills.”
The appearance of Prophet Yunus (AS) and his pitiful plight evoked a sense of affection in everyone. They attended to Prophet Yunus (AS) and served him food.
While the voyage was underway, the ship suddenly ground to a halt in the middle of the sea. Thinking there was a mechanical fault in the ship, the captain inspected the entire vessel.
However, no defect was found. The captain was left completely puzzled as to why the ship had suddenly stopped.
According to the beliefs of that time, if a slave ran away and boarded a ship without their master’s knowledge, or if a wife boarded a ship without her husband’s knowledge, that ship would stop in the middle of the sea.
There was a belief that the ship would not move until they were found and removed.
Therefore, the captain addressed the passengers, “Is there anyone among you who is a slave and has run away without his master’s knowledge? Or is there any woman who has run away without her husband’s knowledge? If so, let that person step forward and leave the ship. Otherwise, everyone will have to lose their lives for the sake of one person.
” Hearing this, the passengers remained silent; no one stepped forward to confess anything. Time kept passing.
After some time, Prophet Yunus (AS) who was sitting in deep thought at a corner of the ship, stood up, came before the captain, and said, “I am that culprit! I did not fulfill the command given by my Master, and I ran away and boarded this ship without His permission. Please throw me into the sea and continue your journey.”
Hearing Prophet Yunus (AS) say this, the people were stunned with astonishment. Thinking that he was such a good man who was lying just to save them, no one accepted it.
Seeing everyone on the ship standing in absolute silence, Prophet Yunus (AS) said, “Why is everyone so silent? Does no one believe my words? I am telling the truth.
It is true that I ran away and boarded this ship without my Master’s permission. Do not risk all your lives out of pity for me alone. Cast lots by writing ‘True’ and ‘False’ on slips of paper to decide whether what I say is true or false. Then you will understand that I am telling the truth.”
As Prophet Yunus suggested, they wrote ‘True’ on one slip and ‘False’ on another, mixed them up, and asked a person to draw one. When he drew a slip, it read ‘True’.
Then the captain mixed the slips again and asked another person to draw. The one he drew also read ‘True’. In this manner, they called several people to draw multiple times, and every single time, the slip reading ‘True’ came up.
Finally, the captain mixed the slips one last time and drew one himself. Even in that, it read ‘True’.
Even though the slip repeatedly came up as ‘True’ just as Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) had said, all the people hesitated and stood doing nothing, wondering how they could throw such a good man into the sea. Realizing this, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) reiterated, “I am indeed a slave who ran away without my Master’s permission,” and at an unexpected moment, he leapt from the ship into the sea.
At that exact moment, a large fish was waiting below with its mouth open. As soon as Prophet Yunus (AS) leapt into the sea, he fell directly into the fish’s mouth and went into its belly. Witnessing this, the people screamed and panicked, grieving that they had lost such a good man in this manner.
The majority opinion is that Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) remained in the whale’s belly for forty days.
Allah forbade the fish from turning Prophet Yunus (AS) into its food. Allah turned the fish’s belly into a prison cell. Placed in this critical situation, Prophet Yunus praised Allah, made Tasbih, and constantly sought forgiveness.
Allah mentions this in the Quran:
وَذَا النُّونِ إِذْ ذَهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا فَظَنَّ أَنْ لَنْ نَقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنَادَى فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ
“And [mention] the man of the fish (Yunus), when he went off in anger and thought that We would not decrease his provision. And he called out within the darknesses, ‘There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.'”
— Surah Al-Anbiya: 87
While inside the whale’s belly, he reflected upon everything: how Allah had commanded him to guide the people of Nineveh, how he had lost patience with them, hastily cursed them, and left
Nineveh without Allah’s permission; how he had lost his wife and children as a consequence; and how the ship had stopped, leading to his leap into the sea and being swallowed by the fish because he boarded it to go elsewhere without Allah’s leave. With a melting heart, he sought forgiveness and prayed to Allah.
After the forty days were over, Allah forgave Prophet Yunus and commanded the fish to cast him onto the shore. The fish came to the shore and vomited him out.
This place is located on the banks of the Euphrates (Furat) River in the city of Kufa, Iraq. People still call this place ‘Maqam-e-Yunus’.
Allah mentions this in the Quran:
وَإِنَّ يُونُسَ لَمِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ * إِذْ أَبَقَ إِلَى الْفُلْكِ الْمَشْحُونِ * فَசَاهَمَ فَكَانَ مِنَ الْمُدْحَضِينَ * فَالْتَقَمَهُ الْحُوتُ وَهُوَ مُلِيمٌ * فَلَوْلَا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ * لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطْنِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ * فَنَبَذْنَاهُ بِالْعَرَاءِ وَهُوَ سَقِيمٌ * وَأَنْبَتْنَا عَلَيْهِ شَجَرَةً مِنْ يَقْطِينٍ
“And indeed, Jonah (Yunus) was among the messengers. [Mention] when he ran away to the laden ship. And he drew lots and was among the losers. Then the fish swallowed him, while he was blameworthy. And if he had not been of those who exalt Allah, He would have remained inside its belly until the Day they are resurrected. But We cast him onto the open shore while he was ill. And We caused to grow over him a gourd vine.”
— Surah As-Saffat: 139 – 146
The condition of Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) when he was cast out of the fish’s belly was extremely pitiful. Due to the intense heat inside the fish’s belly, his hair and beard had completely fallen off.
His body parts were frail and his skin was peeled, resembling a newly hatched chick. He lay there unable to sit or walk.
As he lay curled up, Allah caused a gourd vine to grow over him to provide shade and protect him from the heat of the sun.
As the vine spread over him, it shielded him from the scorching heat. A goat that used to graze there came to give him milk every morning and evening.
Forty days passed like this. Prophet Yunus now regained some strength. His hair and beard began to grow back as before. He continued to stay under the shade of that gourd vine.
One day, after waking up from sleep, he was shocked and saddened to see that the gourd vine that had given him shade had withered, and its leaves lay scattered on the ground.
At that moment, Allah the Almighty sent him a revelation: “You feel so much pain for a single vine which withered, though you did not plant it with your effort, nor did you grow it.
Yet, you ran away after cursing one hundred thousand people of Nineveh whom I created and sustained! Did you think about their plight?” Allah said. Following this, Prophet Yunus (AS) stood with a remorseful heart, reflecting on his mistake.
The gourd vine had withered away, and the goat that provided him milk every morning and evening stopped coming.
Because of this, Prophet Yunus (AS) suffered severe hunger and thirst. In this situation, Allah commanded him to go to Nineveh and give good counsel to the people there. Therefore, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) began walking toward Nineveh.
A petty king who had abducted Prophet Yunus’s wife was unable to approach her, so he left her in a small village and went away.
Now, on his way to Nineveh, Prophet Yunus (AS) found his wife in that small village. He offered thanks to Allah, took his wife along with him, and continued walking.
Furthermore, as they walked along the way, he joyfully found his eldest son—who had been carried away by the wolf—herding sheep at a certain place, and reunited his eldest son with them.
As the three of them walked a little further, they also encountered the younger son who had been swept away by the river, and reunited him as well, before walking toward Nineveh.
Prophet Yunus (AS) felt boundless joy, thinking that turning back toward Nineveh at Allah’s command was the reason he could recover and reunite with his lost wife and two children.
However, a deep worry arose within him whether the people of Nineveh would accept and support him again. Because they had abandoned idol worship and received guidance was something Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) was unaware of.
Therefore, he feared greatly that tribulations might start all over again.
As he neared Nineveh, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) asked a shepherd there, “What is the condition of the people of Nineveh?”
The shepherd asked in return, “Who are you? Where are you coming from?” He replied, “I am Yunus. I belong to this town of Nineveh. I invited the people of this town to abandon idol worship and accept Monotheism. But they did not listen, and instead opposed and persecuted me. Therefore, I prayed against them to God, left this town, and am returning only now.”
Upon hearing this, the shepherd ran swiftly into the town. Not understanding what was happening, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) started walking into the town.
As he approached the town, the sight he witnessed filled him with amazement. The king and the people came rushing together in a grand celebration toward Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam).
As they reached Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam), the king said, “O Prophet! Where had you gone? We have accepted your call and have all accepted Allah as our Lord. For the sake of Allah, please forgive me and my townspeople, pray to Allah for us, and stay with us to guide us on the right path.”
Hearing this, Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) fell into Sujud (prostration), thanked Allah, and praised Him.
Prophet Yunus (Alaihis Salam) then guided those people on the right path in Nineveh. The reason Allah has narrated in the Quran how the Prophets were tested in this manner is for all of us to derive lessons from it!
