Salvation of the Prophet Yunus (Alayhi As-Salam), Swallowed by the Big Fish: A Message for Today's Physicians

Yunus IbnMatta (referred to Jonas and Jonah in English) lived during the reign of the second Jeroboam (793–753 Before Christ), one of the kings of Israel. Hewas aMessenger of Allah sent to Nineveh, a city in Northern Iraq with a population of over a hundred thousand. However, the Prophet Yunus (Alayhi As-Salam [AS]) did not want to warn the people of Nineveh, who were the enemies of the Israelites. He disobeyed the Divine command and boarded a ship from Yafa (Jaffa) to go to Tarshish. When a big storm broke out at sea, theweights on the shipwere thrown into the sea. In an effort to understand who caused this disaster, lots were drawn among the passengers of the ship and the lottery was drawn to Yunus (AS). When Yunus (AS) was thrown into the sea, the storm subsided. By the order of Allah, a big fish swallowed him and Yunus (AS) remained in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights. He prayed to Allah while he was in the stomach of the fish. Allah accepted his dua (supplication) and the fish vomited him onto the land.1 Herein, we discussed Yunus’s (AS) salvation from the stomach of the fish from the Islamic perspective to emphasize that the Quran also addresses today’s people including physicians with Yunus’s (AS) story. Surah Yunus, the tenth Surah of the Quran, contains 109 ayats. In the Surah, the unity of Allah, Muhammad’s (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) prophethood and belief in the hereafter are emphasized and examples of the denialist attitudes of past tribes are mentioned.2 The Quran says Yunus’s (AS) story as follows: So also was Yunus (AS) among those sent (by Us). When he ran away (like a slave from captivity) to the ship (fully) laden, He (agreed to) cast lots, and he was of the rebutted: Then the big fish did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame. Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified Allah, He would certainly have remained inside thefish till the Day of Resurrection. But We cast him forth on the naked shore in a state of sickness, and We caused to grow, over him, a spreading plant of the gourd kind. And We sent him (on a mission) to a hundred thousand (men) or more. And they believed; so We permitted them to enjoy (their life) for a while.3 The dua of Yunus Ibn Matta (AS) is a most powerful dua, a most effective means for obtaining answer to prayer. The sea was stormy, the night turbulent and dark, and hope exhausted. But it was while he was in such a situation that his dua “There is no god but Thou: glory toThee: I was indeed wrong!”4 acted for him as a swift means of salvation. The secret of his dua’s power was this: In that situation all causes were suspended, for Yunus (AS) needed to save him one whose command should constrain the fish and the sea, and the night and the sky. The night, the sea, and the fish were united against him. Only onewhose commandmight subdue all three of these could bring him forth on the strand of salvation. Even if the entirety of creation had become his servants and helpers, it would have been of no avail.5–8 For causes have no effect. Since Yunus (AS) saw with the eye of certainty that there was no refuge other than the Causer of Causes, and unfolded to him was the meaning of divine oneness within the light of divine unity, his dua was able suddenly to subdue the night, the sea, and thefish. Thus, he reached the shore of salvation, where beneath the creeping-gourd tree3 he observed this favor of his Lord.8 The Quran gives a message to today’s physicians through the Prophet Yunus’s (AS) story: If a person swallowed by a whale is removed from the whale’s stomach within the first three days, there is a chance that he will survive. The following incident is an example that supports this fact: James Bartley (1870–1909) is the central figure in a late