Meanwhile, Prophet Yunus, who had left Nineveh, had boarded a small passenger ship with the intention of travelling as far away from his people as possible. The ship travelled through the calm waters during the day; but as the night closed in, a storm raged on rocking the ship wildly to and fro. The crew and passengers began to fear for their lives as the sea water gradually began flooding into the deck, slowly sinking the ship.
As the tempest continued through the night, the Captain of ship ordered his men to throw out the luggages and all other excess load overboard to lighten the ship’s load. As instructed, the crew threw out the ship’s excess load; but, the ship continued to sink as it was still too heavy. The Captain was left with no choice—he had to sacrifice the life of one man if he wished to save the lives of his crew and passengers. As it was a common practise among men during those times, the Captain decided to draw lots to choose the passenger to be sacrificed.
The lots were cast and Prophet Yunus’s name was selected. The men knew that Yunus was a young, righteous, honest and a blessed man, so they refused to throw him out and agreed to draw lots again.
So the lots were cast, and Yunus’s name appeared again. The men refused to throw Yunus saying, “We are not going to get rid of Yunus. He is our blessing on the boat. He is the best man we have on the boat; we are not going to get rid of him.” So they drew lots for the third time, and Yunus’s named appeared yet again! The men were baffled, but Prophet Yunus knew that this was the verdict of Allah for he had left his people without his Lord’s consent. So Yunus jumped out of the ship into the dark, angry waves in the middle of ocean.
Deep in the stomach of the whale, Prophet Yunus prostrated to Allah and said, “O Allah, I am prostrating to you in a place where no one has prostrated to you before, in the stomach of a fish.” He then called out to Allah, repeating, “None has the right to be worshipped but You. Glorified be You. Truly, I have been among the wrongdoers.” The creatures of the deep sea heard the invocations of Yunus, and gathered around the whale to join along in the celebration of the praises of Allah.
Allah, the Most-Merciful, was immensely moved by Yunus’s repentance. He commanded the whale to spit out His Messenger at the nearest shore. The whale obeyed Allah’s command and swam to the nearest shore and ejected Yunus. Yunus’s body was inflamed as a result of the acids in the whale’s stomach. He had no protection against the sun and wind so Allah commanded a tree to grow over Yunus to provide him with food and shade. Allah forgave him and informed him that if it were not for his sincere invocations, Yunus would continue to be in the stomach of the whale till the Day of Judgment.
When Yunus was completely recovered, he travelled back to Nineveh to complete his mission. Upon arriving at his hometown, Yunus was stunned—the entire population of Nineveh had accepted Islam and were awaiting his arrival. Together with his people, Yunus prostrated to his Lord and thanked him for all His blessings.
Yunus was the only Prophet whose entire community accepted Islam. Allah stated in the Holy Quran regarding the people of Yunus Ibn Matta: “Was there any town community that believed after seeing the punishment, and its Faith at that moment, saved it from the punishment? (the answer is none)—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.” [Surah Yunus Ayat 98]