Three Stories

After the treatment of tawḥīd, of resurrection after death, of the stress upon īmān, and of the truthfulness of the Qur'an and its freedom from discrepancy and all the rest, there follow three stories. The Qur'an, it should be borne in mind, employs a variety of techniques to convey its message to people, to convince them, and to change them.

The first of the three stories, beginning at verse 71, is none other than that of the earlier prophets. This was of great relevance to the Quraysh, who had already been hearing the stories of the prophets in various corrupted forms; Allah now gives them the true accounts. The first is the story of the shaykh al-anbiyāʾ, Nūḥ (peace be upon him). Then comes that of Mūsā (peace be upon him) — of Mūsā and Hārūn (peace be upon them) together, in fact, from verses 73, 74 and 75 onwards.

After that comes the story of Yūnus (peace be upon him); and it is for this reason that the sūrah is called Yūnus, because it contains his story.