ABSTRACT
Verily Jonah [Yoonus] was one of the apostles. [Re-member] when he fled unto the laden ship, being angry with his people, because the punishment wherewith he had threatened them did not fall upon them ; wherefore he embarked in the ship ; and it became stationary in the midst of the sea: so the sailors said, Here is a slave who hath fled from his master, and the lot will discover him:–and he cast lots with those who were in the ship, and he was [the] one upon whom the lot fell. They therefore cast him into the sea, and the fish swallowed him ; and he was reprehensible, for having gone to the sea, and embarked in the ship, without the permission of his Lord. And had he not been of those who glorified God (by his saying often in the belly of the fish, There is no god but Thou ! I extol Thy perfection ! Verily I have been of the offenders!), he had remained in his belly until the day of resurrection. 319 the same day, or after three or seven days, or twenty or forty days; and he was sick; and We caused a gourd plant 320 to shade him. It had a trunk, contrary to what is the case of gourds in general, being miraculously produced for him? 321 And a wild she-goat came to him evening and morning, of whose milk he drank until he became strong. And We sent him after that, as before, unto his people in Nineveh, in the land of El-Moṣil, a hundred thousand, or they were a greater number by twenty or thirty or seventy thousand ; and they believed on beholding the punishment wherewith they had been threatened; 322 wherefore We allowed them enjoyment of their goods for a time, until the expiration of their terms of life. (xxxvii. 139 - 148 .)
