Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:98
Then has there not been a [single] city that believed so its faith benefited it except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the punishment of disgrace in worldly life and gave them enjoyment for a time.
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 words of Allah, the Exalted: فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ آمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيمَانُهَا إِلا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ لَمَّا آمَنُوا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَتَّعْنَاهُمْ إِلَى حِينٍ (98)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah, the Exalted, means by this: "Was there then no town that believed?" — and thus it is also transmitted in the Qurʾānic reading of Ubayy.
The meaning of the words is: There was not a single town that believed at the moment when it saw the punishment (ʿadhāb) and the wrath of Allah (ghaḍab Allah) descended upon it — because of its disobedience to its Lord and its having deserved the punishment — in such a way that this faith (īmān) profited it at that moment, just as it did not profit Pharaoh to believe when the drowning overtook him, after he had long persisted in his error and called down upon himself the wrath of Allah through his disobedience — with the exception of the people of Yūnus, for their faith profited them after the punishment had descended and the wrath had befallen them.
Allah excepted the people of Yūnus from among the towns whose inhabitants gained no benefit from their faith after the punishment had come down upon them. He set them apart and made known to His creatures that their faith benefited them in particular, above all other communities.
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If someone were to ask: if the matter is as you described — namely that the words فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ آمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيمَانُهَا have the meaning of "there was not a single town that believed," with the sense of negation — then how is "people" (qawm) placed in the accusative case, when you know that what comes after an exceptive word (istiṯnāʾ), when the preceding clause is negative, must stand in the nominative case, and that correct Arabic is: "no one stood up except your brother" and "no one departed except your father"?
To this the answer is: that is so when what comes after the exceptive word is of the same category (jins) as what comes before it. For "brother" is of the same category as "anyone," and likewise "father." But when the two categories differ from each other — so that what comes after the exceptive word belongs to a different category than what comes before it — then pure Arabic usage is the accusative case. That is the case when one would say: "no one remained in the house, except the tent-peg," or "with us there is no one, except a dog or a donkey" — for "dog," "tent-peg," and "donkey" belong to a different category than "anyone." Of this kind too is the verse of al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī:
"She was not to be answered with any reply, and there was no longer anyone at the dwelling-place" —
after which he said:
"Except the steel stakes — I can scarcely make them out — and the trench like a watering-trough on the hardened, twisted ground."
He placed "the stakes" (al-awārī) in the accusative because they were excepted from what was of a different category. So too "the people of Yūnus" is placed in the accusative, for they are a community that differs from the communities from which they were excepted, and they belong to a different category and form — even though they are children of Adam. This is what some of the grammarians call the discontinuous exception (al-istiṯnāʾ al-munqaṭiʿ). Had "the people of Yūnus" been a part of the community from which they were excepted, the nominative case would have applied — but they are as I have described.
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In accordance with what we have said about this, the interpreters (ahl al-taʾwīl) spoke.
*Report of those who said this:*
17897 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the words فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ آمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيمَانُهَا : he says: "There was not a single town that believed and for which faith profited when the punishment of Allah descended upon it — except the town of Yūnus."
Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: "There was not a single town that believed and for which faith profited as it profited the people of Yūnus by their faith — except the people of Yūnus."
17898 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning the words فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ آمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيمَانُهَا إِلا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ لَمَّا آمَنُوا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَتَّعْنَاهُمْ إِلَى حِينٍ : he says: "This was not so among the earlier communities — there was no town that was unbelieving and then believed when the punishment descended upon it, so that it was spared — except the people of Yūnus. When they missed their prophet and supposed that the punishment was drawing near to them, Allah cast repentance into their hearts. They put on garments of penitence, separated every animal from its young, and implored Allah for forty nights. When Allah saw the sincerity in their hearts, and the repentance and the remorse for what they had done, Allah lifted the punishment from them after it had almost reached them." He said: "And it has been mentioned to us that the people of Yūnus were in Nineveh, in the territory of Mosul."
17899 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning إِلا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ : he said: "It has reached us that they went out and stationed themselves on a hill, separated every animal from its young, and called upon Allah for forty nights, until He accepted their repentance."
17900 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ḥammānī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: "The punishment enveloped the people of Yūnus as a shroud envelops the grave."
17901 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "The punishment had already descended upon the people of Yūnus, until there was no more than about two-thirds of a mile between them and the punishment. But when they implored, Allah lifted it from them."
17902 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Hudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — and Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — concerning فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ آمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيمَانُهَا إِلا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ لَمَّا آمَنُوا : he said: "As the people of Yūnus were benefited." Abū Hudhayfa added in his transmission: "There was no town that believed when it saw the punishment and for which faith profited — except the people of Yūnus: We let them enjoy."
17903 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas: "A man related to us who had the Qurʾān in his heart — he had memorized it completely — in the period of the rule of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him, and he narrated concerning the people of Yūnus: when he warned his people and they rejected him, he informed them that the punishment would befall them, and he separated himself from them. When they saw that and the punishment enveloped them, they left their dwellings and climbed to a high place, and they implored their Lord and called upon Him with sincere faith — that He would remove the punishment from them and that their messenger would return to them. He said: Concerning this was revealed: فَلَوْلا كَانَتْ قَرْيَةٌ آمَنَتْ فَنَفَعَهَا إِيمَانُهَا إِلا قَوْمَ يُونُسَ لَمَّا آمَنُوا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَتَّعْنَاهُمْ إِلَى حِينٍ — there was no town enveloped by the punishment that was then spared, except the people of Yūnus in particular. When Yūnus saw that, he departed in anger against his Lord, and he went off in wrath, thinking that he would not be hard-pressed, until he boarded a ship. The passengers were struck by a stormy wind" — and he continued the story of Yūnus and his account.
17904 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Hudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ: "When they saw that the punishment was descending, they separated every female animal and her young from the people and the cattle, and they all stood up and implored Allah and made their faith sincere. They saw that the punishment was lifted from them. Yūnus said, when the punishment had been lifted from them: 'Shall I return to them, when I have lied to them!' — Yūnus had promised them the punishment by the morning of the third day, and on that occasion he departed in anger and harbored evil thoughts."
17905 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: "When Yūnus had been sent to his people and invited them to Islam and to abandoning what they were doing. He said: he invited them and they refused. He was told: inform them that the punishment will strike them by the morning. They said: we have never caught him in a lie. Let us wait: if he spends the night among us, there is nothing amiss; if he does not spend the night among us, then know that the punishment will strike you by the morning. When it was the middle of the night, he took his travel provisions and took some of it with him, and departed. When they awoke in the morning, the punishment enveloped them as it envelops a man when the shroud is laid over him in the grave. They separated the people from their children and the animals from their young, and implored Allah aloud: 'We believe in what Yūnus has brought, and we affirm it!' Allah lifted the punishment from them. Yūnus went out to behold the punishment but saw nothing. He said: 'They have caught me in a lie!' And he departed in wrath against his Lord until he reached the sea."
17906 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn: Ibn Masʿūd related to us in the Bayt al-Māl. He said: "Yūnus, peace be upon him, had promised his people the punishment and informed them that they would receive it within three days. They separated every mother from her child, went out and implored Allah aloud and asked Him for forgiveness. Allah held the punishment back from them. Yūnus went out in the morning to look for the punishment but saw nothing. Whoever lied without having proof was killed — and he departed in wrath."
17907 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī related to us, on the authority of Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī, on the authority of Abū al-Jald Jaylān: "When the punishment enveloped the people of Yūnus, they went to an old man who was among the remnant of their scholars and said to him: 'The punishment has descended upon us — what do you advise us?' He said: 'Say: O Living One, when there is no living one! O Living One, Raiser of the dead! O Living One, there is no god but You!' Allah lifted the punishment from them and they enjoyed until an appointed time."
17908 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar: "It has reached me that in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd the word 'falawlā' has the meaning of 'fahallā' ('why then not?')."
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As for His words: لَمَّا آمَنُوا كَشَفْنَا عَنْهُمْ عَذَابَ الْخِزْيِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا — He says: when they believed their messenger and acknowledged what he had brought them, after the punishment (ʿadhāb) had already loomed over them and the command of Allah had enveloped them and the calamity had descended upon them, We lifted from them the punishment of humiliation and disgrace in their worldly life. وَمَتَّعْنَاهُمْ إِلَى حِينٍ — He says: We deferred their term and did not hasten the punishment upon them, but let them enjoy in this world until an appointed time — the time of their death and the moment of the expiry of their term whose expiry I had decreed.