Transliteration:( Falaw laa kaanat qaryatun aamanat fa nafa'ahaaa eemaanuhaaa illaa qawma Yoonusa lammaaa aamanoo kashafnaa 'anhum 'azaabal khizyi fil hayaatid dunyaa wa matta'naahum ilaa heen )
258. From those localities which had been destroyed.
259. He is Yunus bin Mutta. Mutta was the name of his mother. His people
were settled at Nainowa, a place along River Dajlah near Mousal. He had
preached to them for a long time but they did not accept faith after which he
prayed for their destruction.
Divine command came to tell those people that within three days divine
punishment will descend upon them. After giving them this message he
himself took refuge on the mountains.
When black clouds appeared as sign of punishment people set out
searching for him. On not finding him they began to plead to Allah Almighty
Men and women set out for the jungles, offered sincere repentance, and
returned one another's wealth they had hidden. Their supplication was
accepted and the punishment vanished. They were saved by the search for
the Prophet
260. The removal of punishment from the people of Hazrat Yunus (on
whom be peace) is either from among their special virtues explaining law is
one thing but power is. another thing altogether, or that these people
accepted faith at seeing the sign of punishment, before the coming of the
actual punishment.
261. By this is meant whatever age was granted to them they lived that
long. From this incident we learn that ages can increase or decrease, and
that fate can change. Observe, due to their disobedience Divine
punishment to destroy them had appeared and they were near to destruction but by their sincere repentance this punishment was removed
from them and these people lived for a much longer period.
98. Was there any town (community) that believed (after seeing the punishment), and its faith (at that moment) saved it (from the punishment)– except the people of Yunus; when they believed, We removed from them the torment of disgrace in the life of the (present) world, and permitted them to enjoy for a while).
Allah asked, `did any town from the previous nations, believe in its entirety when they received the Messengers All of the Messengers that We sent before you, O Muhammad, were denied by their people or the majority of their people.’ Allah said,
(Alas for mankind! There never came a Messenger to them but they used to mock at him.)(36:30)
(Likewise, no Messenger came to those before them but they said: “A sorcerer or a madman!â€)(51:52) and
(And similarly, We sent not a warner before you to any town (people) but the luxurious ones among them said: “We found our fathers following a certain way and religion, and we will indeed follow their footsteps.â€)(43:23) As found in the authentic Hadith,
(The Prophets were displayed before me. There was a Prophet who passed with a group of people, and a Prophet who passed with only one man, a Prophet with two men, and a Prophet with no one.) Then he mentioned the mulititude of followers that Musa had, peace be upon him, then that he saw his nation of people filling from the west to the east. The point is that between Musa and Yunus, there was no nation, in its entirety, that believed except the people of Yunus, the people of Naynawa (Nineveh). And they only believed because they feared that the torment from which their Messenger warned them, might strike them. They actually witnessed its signs. So they cried to Allah and asked for help. They engaged in humility in invoking Him. They brought their children and cattle and asked Allah to lift the torment from which their Prophet had warned them. As a result, Allah sent His mercy and removed the scourge from them and gave them respite. Allah said:
(Except the people of Yunus; when they believed, We removed from them the torment of disgrace in the life of the world, and permitted them to enjoy for a while.) In interpreting this Ayah, Qatadah said: “No town has denied the truth and then believed when they saw the scourge, and then their belief benefited them, with the exception of the people of Yunus. When they lost their Prophet and they thought that the scourge was close upon them, Allah sent through their hearts the desire to repent. So they wore woolen fabrics and they separated each animal from its offspring. They then cried out to Allah for forty nights. When Allah saw the truth in their hearts and that they were sincere in their repentance and regrets, He removed the scourge from them.†Qatadah said: “It was mentioned that the people of Yunus were in Naynawa, the land of Mosul.†This was also reported from Ibn Mas`ud, Mujahid, Sa`id bin Jubayr and others from the Salaf.
98. Though Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) 860-784 B.C. was an Israelite Prophet, he was sent to Iraq for the guidance of the Assyrians, who have been called the people of Jonah for this reason. At that time, Nineveh, a very ancient and famous city, was their capital. Its vast remains are scattered on the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to the city of Mosul, and one of the mounds bears the name of Prophet Jonah. In order to form an estimate of the glory of these people, suffice it to say that the circumference of their capital Nineveh was 60 miles or so.
99. As regards to the question why the threatened torment was warded off from the people of Jonah as an exception to the divine principle, “Why was there not a (single) township (among those We warned) that believed so its belief benefited it,†the Quran does not give any details of this, but merely refers to the story at three places. See (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayat 87-88); (Surah As-Sajdah, Ayat 139-148); (Surah Al-Qalam, Ayat 48-50). Though the story contained in the Book of Jonah gives some details, these cannot be depended upon because it was neither composed by Prophet Jonah nor it is a revealed Book but was written by some unknown person and then inserted in the Bible. Besides this, it contains some apparently absurd things which cannot be accepted as true. Nevertheless if we consider this deeply in the light of the allusions made in the Quran and details in the Book of Jonah, the explanation given by various commentators of the Quran seems to be correct. Prophet Jonah left the place of his mission without divine permission after warning the people of the torment. Therefore Allah forgave the Assyrians when they repented after seeing some signs of the coming torment. This was in accordance with the divine principles as stated in the Quran. For, according to one of these, Allah does not inflict any torment on any people, till He has the message fully demonstrated to them. As the Prophet did not continue his admonition in accordance with the appointed term and left the place of his mission of his own accord, Allah’s justice did not inflict the chastisement because the legal argument against his people had not been fulfilled.
100. When the Assyrians believed in the message, they were given a new lease of life. But after some time, they adopted the wrong ways of thought and deed. Prophet Nahum (720-698 B.C.) warned and admonished them but without any effect. Then Prophet Zephaniah (640-609 B.C.) gave them the last warning that “He …. will destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolationâ€, but it also proved in vain. At last in about 612 B.C. Allah made the Medes dominant over them.
The Median king, with the help of the Babylonians, invaded Assyria, and their army was defeated and was besieged within the walls of Nineveh. They put up a stiff resistance for some time but then the floods in the Tigris swept away the city wall and the invaders swarmed into the city and burnt it to ashes along with the surrounding countryside. The Assyrian king set fire to his palace and was himself burnt to death. Thus the Assyrian Empire and its culture came to an end forever. The recent archaeological excavations reveal widespread effects of the fire.
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