The Companion of the Fish

The next story is the story of Dhū al-Nūn, ṣāḥib al-ḥūt, the companion of the fish: Yūnus (peace be upon him). Allah (swt) called him Dhū al-Nūn. The nūn is the big fish, the whale, and ṣāḥib al-ḥūt means the same thing.

And truly, Yūnus was one of the messengers. Yūnus (peace be upon him) was sent to a town in Iraq. He made daʿwah to his people, calling them to Allah (swt). As usual, they did not respond, and they were harsh with him. Yūnus was irritated and agitated by their response; his people provoked him, because of their persistence and their hostility towards the religion of Allah.

Yūnus said: if this is how it is with these people, they do not deserve this. I will leave and go somewhere else; I will go and make daʿwah in another part of the world. I will leave these people alone; they do not deserve this — look at their response. Allah (swt) says: wa dhā al-nūni idh dhahaba mughāḍibā — and Dhū al-Nūn, when he went off in anger. He left his people in a state of anger: they did not respond, they do not want to listen, I am going to leave.

So he left them. He wanted to get as far away as possible, so he went to sea: he took a boat that would carry him as far as possible from these people he despised. The wind picked up; the waves grew higher and higher; it was a storm. The people on the boat decided that to survive they had to get rid of their luggage, so they threw all of it overboard to make the boat lighter. That was not enough. So now they had to throw out one of the passengers; they had to sacrifice one of the men on board.

So they cast lots — as we would say today, they threw dice. They cast the lot, and it fell on whom? Yūnus. They said: no, no, no — we are not going to get rid of Yūnus. He is our barakah, our blessing on this boat; he is the best man we have on board; we are not getting rid of him. Let us try again. They cast it another time, and it fell on whom? Yūnus, again. They did it a third time, and it fell on Yūnus. These people did not want to get rid of Yūnus; they had seen how righteous he was. But Yūnus knew this was not random. This casting of lots was not random: it was by the will of Allah (swt), and Allah was telling him something. So he jumped into the sea. And Allah (swt) commanded one of His creations, the whale, the big fish, to swallow him, and it swallowed Yūnus.