Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:90
And We took the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his soldiers pursued them in tyranny and enmity until, when drowning overtook him, he said, "I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the word of Allah the Exalted: وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ وَجُنُودُهُ بَغْيًا وَعَدْوًا حَتَّى إِذَا أَدْرَكَهُ الْغَرَقُ قَالَ آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ (90) (And We brought the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his hosts pursued them out of covetousness and enmity, until, when the drowning overtook him, he said: "I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of the Muslims.")
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah the Exalted says: We clove the sea in two for the Children of Israel until they had crossed over it — فَأَتْبَعَهُمْ فِرْعَوْنُ — that is to say: Pharaoh followed after them, and his hosts likewise.
For this one says both "atbaʿtuhu" and "tabaʿtuhu," with the same meaning.
Al-Kisāʾī — as far as Abū ʿUbayd reports from him — used to say: when one means that someone pursued another for good or for ill, then the expression is "atbaʿahum," with a hamza at the beginning of the alif; but when one means that someone followed another's track or trailed after him, then it comes from "ittabaʿtu," with a doubled tāʾ and without a hamza.
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بَغْيًا — out of insolence toward Mūsā and Hārūn and whoever of their compatriots, the Children of Israel, was with them — وَعَدْوًا — that is to say: and as an assault upon them.
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This is a maṣdar (verbal noun) formed from the expression: "ʿadā fulānun ʿalā fulānin fī al-ẓulm, yaʿdū ʿalayhi ʿadwan" — "so-and-so assaulted another with wrong, he assaults him, as an assault" — according to the pattern of "ghazā yaghzū ghazwan."
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It has been transmitted from some that he read: بَغْيًا وَعُدُوًّا, with a ḍamma on the ʿayn and a doubled wāw — this is likewise a maṣdar of the expression "ʿadā yaʿdū ʿuduwwan," according to the pattern of "ʿalā yaʿlū ʿuluwwan."
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حَتَّى إِذَا أَدْرَكَهُ الْغَرَقُ — that is to say: until the drowning encompassed him. In the text something has been omitted that has been left out because what is visible in the text already indicates it; namely: "and Pharaoh and his hosts pursued them therein out of covetousness and enmity" — and We drowned him — حَتَّى إِذَا أَدْرَكَهُ الْغَرَقُ.
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And His word: قَالَ آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ — Allah the Exalted says, while reporting about what Pharaoh spoke at the moment when he was about to drown and knew for certain that he would perish: آمَنْتُ — that is to say: I confess and acknowledge — أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ.
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The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of this word.
Some of them — and this is the reading of most of the people of Medina and Basra — read: أَنَّهُ with a fatḥa on the alif of "annahu," because "āmantu" acts directly upon it and puts it in the accusative.
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Others read: آمَنْتُ إِنَّهُ with a kasra on the alif of "innahu," as the beginning of a new statement. This is the reading of most of the Kufans.
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The judgment regarding this, in my view, is that they are two readings which differ little from one another in meaning, and whichever of the two a reciter chooses, he has done well.
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In the same vein as what we have said, the people of tafsīr spoke.
We mention who said that:
17857 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn ʿUbayda related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh ibn Shaddād, who said: Jacob and his sons joined Joseph — they were seventy-two — and they set out with Mūsā from Egypt when they went forth, and they were six hundred thousand. When Pharaoh caught up with them and they saw him, they said: "O Mūsā, where is the way out? He has caught up with us — we always suffered adversity from Pharaoh!" Then Allah revealed to Mūsā: "Strike the sea with your staff" — and it split open, and every passage was like a mighty mountain — and the sea dried up before them, and Allah laid bare the face of the earth. Pharaoh set out on a black stallion, and there were eight hundred thousand of the same black color, besides other colors of animals. Jibrīl, peace be upon him, rode a mare in heat — there was no other female [mount] besides her — and Mīkāʾīl drove them on, so that not one man strayed but he drove him back among the people. When the last part of the Children of Israel had come out, Jibrīl drew near and clung to him, and the stallion smelled the scent of the female [mare], and Pharaoh no longer had power over his own affair. He cried out: "Forward! This people has no greater right to the sea than you!" Then Pharaoh pursued them, and when the first of them were about to come out, he sank into it and cried out: آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ. And it was called out: آلآنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنْتَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ.
17858 — Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās —
— and on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Thābit, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who raises it to the Prophet ﷺ, that he said: "Jibrīl put mud into the mouth of Pharaoh out of fear that he would say 'there is no god but Allah.'"
17859 — Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAnqazī related to me, saying: my father related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Thābit, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: "Jibrīl, peace be upon him, put — or filled — the mouth of Pharaoh with mud, out of fear that the mercy would reach him."
17860 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Kathīr ibn Zādhān, on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Prophet ﷺ said: "Jibrīl said to me: 'O Muḥammad, had you but seen me while I was submerging him and putting mud into his mouth, out of fear that the mercy of Allah would reach him and that He would forgive him!'" — that is to say: Pharaoh.
17861 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mihrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that the Prophet ﷺ said: "When Allah drowned Pharaoh, he said: آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ. Then Jibrīl said: 'O Muḥammad, had you but seen me while I was taking mud from the sea and putting it into his mouth, out of fear that the mercy would reach him.'"
17862 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to me, on the authority of Ḥakkām, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: "When Pharaoh said 'there is no god but Allah,' Jibrīl began to put earth and mud into his mouth."
17863 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, who said: Someone who heard Maymūn ibn Mihrān speak about the word آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ related to me; he said: "Jibrīl took mud from the sea and struck him with it in the face — or he said: filled his mouth with it — out of fear that the mercy of Allah would reach him."
17864 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, on the authority of Maymūn ibn Mihrān, who said: Al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays delivered an address, praised Allah and lauded Him, and then said: "Pharaoh was a tyrant and a slave who had forgotten Allah, and when the drowning overtook him, he said: آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ. Allah said: آلآنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنْتَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ."
17865 — [the same] he said: my father related to me, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Thābit, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "When the drowning overtook Pharaoh, Jibrīl began to put earth into his mouth, out of fear that he would be forgiven."
17866 — [the same] he said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn al-Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm al-Taymī: "Jibrīl, peace be upon him, said: 'I have not begrudged any of the children of Adam the mercy as I begrudged Pharaoh — for when he said what he said, I feared that it would reach the Lord and that He would show him mercy; so I took mud and foam from the sea and struck him with it in the eyes and the face.'"
17867 — [the same] he said: Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar informed us, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn Yaʿlā, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: "Jibrīl, peace be upon him, said: 'I filled his mouth with mud, out of fear that the mercy would reach him.'"
