77. This is the third place where the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) has been mentioned in the Quran. Before this he has already been mentioned in Surah Younus and Surah Al-Anbiya. (For reference, please see (Surah Younus, Ayat 98 ) and (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayats 87-88) and E.Ns thereof).

78. The word abaqa in Arabic is used for the flight and escape of a slave from his master’s house.

79. This is what one understands from a study of these sentences:

(1) The vessel which the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) boarded was already overloaded.

(2) Lots were drawn in the vessel probably at a time when during the voyage it was felt that the lives of the passengers had been endangered due to the overloading; therefore, lots were cast to pick oat a person to be thrown overboard.

(3) The lot fell on the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him), and so he was thrown into the sea and a fish swallowed him.

(4) The Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) was so afflicted because he had fled and abandoned the place of his mission without the permission of his Master (Allah Almighty). This meaning is confirmed by the word abaqa as has been explained in (E.N. 78) above, and also by the word muleem. Muleem is a blameworthy person, who becomes worthy of blame by himself because of his sin and error, whether somebody else blames him for it or not. (Ibn Jarir).

80. It has two meanings and both are implied: (1) That the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) was not of the people who are heedless of God, but was of those who glorify and adore Allah constantly and perpetually. (2) That when he went inside the fish, he turned to Allah alone and glorified Him. In Surah Al-Anbiya it has been said: He invoked Us from the depths of the darkness, saying: There is no god but You: Glory be to You: I am indeed blameworthy. (verse 87).

81. This does not mean that the fish would have lived till Resurrection and the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) would have remained alive in its belly till then, but that the fish’s belly would have become his grave till Resurrection. The famous commentator Qatadah has given this same meaning of this verse. (Ibn Jarir).

82. That is, when the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) confessed his fault, and began to glorify Allah like a true and sincere believer, the fish spat him up on the beach by Allah’s command. The beach was a bare plain, without any vegetation on it, or anything to provide him shade, or any means of food.

Here, the rationalists have been heard expressing the misgiving that it is impossible for a man to come out alive from the belly of a fish. But, towards the end of the last century, an event took place near the sea-shores of England (the center of this so-called rationalism), which belies this claim. In August, 1891, some fishermen went to the high sea to hunt whales in a ship called Star of the East. There they injured a great fish which was 20 feet long, 5 feet wide and weighed a hundred tons, but during the struggle the fish swallowed a fisherman, James Bartley, in front of the very eyes of his companions. Next day the same fish was found dead on the sea. The fishermen hauled it up on board and when they cut open its belly, James Bartley came out alive. He had remained in the fish’s belly for full 60 hours. (Urdu Digest, February, 1964). Obviously, when such a thing is possible in normal circumstances naturally, why should it be impossible under abnormal conditions as a miracle of God?

83. The Arabic word yaqteen applies to a tree which does not stand on a stem but grows and spreads like a creeper, e.g. a pumpkin, cucumber, water-melon, etc. In any case, a creeper was produced miraculously, so that its leaves should provide shade to the Prophet Jonah and its fruit should serve him both as food and as shade.

84. The mention of a hundred thousand people or more does not mean that Allah had any doubt about their number, but it means that a casual observer would have estimated the population to be more than a hundred thousand people in any case. Probably it was the same place which the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) had left and fled. After his departure when the people of the place saw the scourge approaching, they believed. But this was only a kind of repentance which was accepted and the scourge averted. Now, the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) was again sent to them so that the people should believe in him as a Prophet and become Muslims formally. To understand this, one should keep in view verse 98 of Surah Younus.

85. Some people have taken exception to what we have written concerning this story of the Prophet Jonah in our commentary of Surahs Younus and Al-Anbiya. It would therefore be proper that we should reproduce here the explanations given by the other commentators in this regard.

The famous commentator Qatadah in his commentary of (verse 98 of Surah Younus) says: There has been no habitation which disbelieved and might have believed after the arrival of the scourge, and then might have been left unpunished. The only exception were the people of the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him). When they searched for their Prophet and did not find him, and felt that the scourge had approached near at hand, Allah put repentance in their hearts. (Ibn Kathir, vol. II, p. 433).

Commenting on the same verse Allama Alusi says: The Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) had been sent to the people of Nineveh in the land of Mosul. They were polytheistic people. The Prophet Jonah invited them to believe in Allah the One, and to give up idol-worship. They refused to believe and belied him. Jonah gave them the news that they would be visited by a scourge after three days and he left the place at midnight before the expiry of the three days. Then, in the day time when the scourge approached and the people realized that they would all perish, they began to search for the Prophet but did not find him. At last, they took their families and their cattle and came out in the desert and expressed belief and repentance. So, Allah showed them mercy and accepted their prayer. (Ruh al-Ma ani, vol. XI, p. 170).

Commenting on( verse 87 of Surah Al-Anbiya), Allama Alusi writes: The Prophet Jonah’s (peace be upon him) forsaking his people in anger was an act of migration, but he had not been commanded to do so. (Ruh al-Maani, vol. xvii, p. 77). Then he explains the meaning of the sentence, “Inna kun-tu min-az-zalimin”, of Jonah’s prayer, thus: That is, I was blameworthy in that I hastened to migrate, against the way of the Prophets, before receiving the command for it. This was, in fact, a confession of his sin and expression of repentance so that Allah might remove his affliction. (Ruh al-Maani, vol. xvii, p. 78).

Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi’s note on this verse is: He became angry with his people when they did not believe, and forsook them, and did not return to them of his own accord when the scourge had been averted, and did not await Our command for the migration. (Bayan ul-Quran).

Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Uthmani writes in his note on this verse: Vexed at the misconduct of his people he left the city in anger and did not await the divine command and threatened the people that they would be visited by a torment after three days. lnni kun-tu min az-Zalimin: He confessed his error that he had made haste and left the habitation without awaiting Allah’s command.

Explaining these verses of Surah Saaffat, Imam Razi writes: The Prophet Jonah’s (peace be upon him) fault was that when Allah threatened to destroy the people who had belied him, he thought that the scourge would inevitably befall them. Therefore, he did not show patience and abandoned his mission and left the place, whereas he ought to have continued the work of his mission, for there was a possibility that Allah might not destroy those people. (Tafsir Kabir, vol. vii, p. 158). Explaining the verse Idh abaqa, Allama Alusi writes: “Literally, abaqa means the escape of a slave from his master’s house. Since Jonah had run away from his people without Allah’s leave, the word has been rightly used about him. Then he writes: When the third day came, the Prophet Jonah left the place without Allah’s permission. Thus, when his people did not find him, they came out along with their young and old people and their cattle, and they implored Allah and begged for His forgiveness and Allah forgave them. (Ruh al-Maani, vol. xxii, p. 13).

Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Uthmani has explained the words wa huwa mulim, thus: The accusation against him was that he had left the city because of an error of judgment, without awaiting the divine command, and even specified the day for the coming of the scourge.

Then Maulana Shabbir Ahmad’s note on (verse 48 of Surah Al-Qalam) is: Do not be perplexed and agitated with regard to the deniers like the Man of the Fish (i.e. the Prophet Jonah).” And about the sentence: wa huwa makzum of the same verse, he writes: That is, he was full of anger against his people, so he prayed for the torment, rather foretold it, in fretful haste.

These explanations by the commentators clearly show that there were three offenses on account of which the Prophet Jonah was made to suffer Allah’s displeasure:

(1) That he himself fixed the day of the torment, whereas Allah had not made any declaration in this regard.

(2) That he emigrated from the city even before the day came; whereas a Prophet should not leave the place of his mission until Allah commands him to do so.

(3) That he did not return to his people after the torment had been averted from them.