(So lots were drawn between the voyagers when a fish blocked...

(So lots were drawn between the voyagers when a fish blocked their way and he became among the defeated as his name came out in the lots).” “So the fish swallowed him while he did that for which he blamed himself.” “But had it not been that he was of those who glorify (Us), he would certainly have tarried in its belly to the day when they are raised.” “Then we cast him on to the vacant surface of the earth (where there was neither tree nor greenery) while he was sick” (It is said that his body had become as soft and weak like that of a newborn baby).

“And We caused to grow up for him a gourd plant (which cast its shadow on him) and we sent him to a hundred thousand rather they exceeded” (that is, in the land of Nineveh, which is one of the cities of Mosul. Some say, in this verse, the word (AV) means (VA) meaning ‘and’, indicating one lakh and more. Some say it means we sent him toward many groups, and that if anybody would see them they would say they were one-lakh men or more.

About this ‘more’ some are of the opinion that it meant twenty thousand and according to some thirty thousand, and in the opinion of some even seventy thousand. “And they believed, so we gave them provision until a time” (that is, until they completed their ages of life we deferred our chastisement from them). And at another place He says: “Were it not that favor from his Lord had overtaken him, he would certainly have been cast down upon the naked ground while he was blamed.

Then his Lord chose him, and He made him of the Good.” According to reliable narrations Imam Ja‘far as-Sadiq is reported to have said that Allah has never deferred from any people His chastisement after its signs had become apparent except in the case of the community of Yunus. Yunus went on inviting his people toward Islam and they continued to deny. Finally he intended to curse them. There were two men. One of them was a worshipper and the other was scholar.

The name of the worshipper was Tahoka and that of the scholar Roobeel. The worshipper said “do curse” but the scholar insisted that they should not be cursed. He said to Yunus “Though Allah will not turn down your curse He would also not like to annihilate His slaves.” Yunus accepted the talk of the worshipper and cursed his community. Allah revealed to him that His chastisement would come down on them on such and such day of such and such month of such and such year.

When the day drew near Yunus went out of the community with the worshipper.