Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:144
He would have remained inside its belly until the Day they are resurrected.
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.
لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطْنِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ ("then he would have remained in its belly until the Day on which they are resurrected"). He says: then he would have remained in the belly of the fish until the Day of Resurrection, the Day on which Allah resurrects His creatures, held imprisoned. But he was among those whom Allah remembered before the trial, and so Allah remembered him at the time of the trial, and rescued Him and brought Him to safety.
The scholars of interpretation differed concerning the time of the glorification (tasbīḥ) of Yūnus, by which Allah praised him, when He said: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified [Allah]"). Some of them said something corresponding to what we have said about this, and they said something similar to our statement about the meaning of His word: مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("one of those who glorify").
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified") — he used to perform the prayer (ṣalāh) abundantly in times of ease, and through that Allah rescued him. He said: And it used to be said in the [books of] wisdom: indeed, the good deed raises up the one who performs it when he stumbles, so that, when he is cast down, he finds support to lean upon.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of one of his companions, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified"), he said: he used to pray at length in times of ease. He said: And indeed, the good deed raises up the one who performs it when he stumbles; when he is cast down, he finds support to lean upon.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Abū Ḍakhr related to us, that Yazīd al-Raqāshī related to him, saying: I heard Anas ibn Mālik saying — and I do not know otherwise than that Anas ascribes the report to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: "Indeed, the prophet Yūnus, when it occurred to him to call upon Allah with the words, when he called upon Him while he was in the belly of the fish, he said: 'O Allah, there is no god but You, glory be to You, indeed, I was among the wrongdoers.' Then the call rose up to beneath the Throne, and the angels said: 'O Lord, this is a weak voice, known, in a strange land.' He said: 'Do you not know it?' They said: 'O Lord, and who is he?' He said: 'That is My servant Yūnus.' They said: 'Your servant Yūnus, from whom there ceaselessly rose up an accepted deed and an answered call?' They said: 'O Lord, will he not receive mercy for what he used to do in times of ease, so that You rescue him from the trial?' He said: 'Yes indeed.' Then He commanded the fish, and it cast him out upon the barren land."
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Abū Razīn, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified"), he said: one of those who pray.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Haytham, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified"), he said: one of those who pray.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified"), he said: he had performed good deeds in the past.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying: مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("one of those who glorify"), he said: those who pray.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Kathīr ibn Hishām related to us, saying: Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Maymūn ibn Mihrān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays saying upon his pulpit: Remember Allah in times of ease, and He will remember you in times of hardship. Indeed, Yūnus was a servant of Allah who remembered [Him], and when hardship befell him, he called upon Allah, and Allah said: لَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطْنِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified, he would have remained in its belly until the Day on which they are resurrected"). Thus Allah remembered him on account of what had proceeded from him. And Pharaoh was a tyrant and a transgressor, and when the drowning reached him, he said: آمَنْتُ أَنَّهُ لا إِلَهَ إِلا الَّذِي آمَنَتْ بِهِ بَنُو إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَنَا مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ * آلآنَ وَقَدْ عَصَيْتَ قَبْلُ وَكُنْتَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ ("I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the children of Israel believe, and I am among those who submit * Now? When you disobeyed before and were among the corrupters"). Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: So remember Allah in times of ease, and He will remember you in times of hardship.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And it has been said: he performed the prayer of which Allah informed concerning him only for the first time when He said: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified"), [namely] in the belly of the fish.
And some of them said: that was a glorification (tasbīḥ), not a prayer.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Dāwūd related to us, saying: ʿImrān al-Qaṭṭān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan saying concerning His saying: فَلَوْلا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ ("Had he not been one of those who glorified"), he said: By Allah, it was nothing other than a prayer that he performed for the first time in the belly of the fish. ʿImrān said: Then I mentioned that to Qatāda, but he denied that and said: By Allah, rather he used to perform the prayer abundantly in times of ease.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of al-Mughīra ibn al-Nuʿmān, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: فَالْتَقَمَهُ الْحُوتُ وَهُوَ مُلِيمٌ ("Then the fish swallowed him, while he was blameworthy"), he said: He said: لا إِلَهَ إِلا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ ("There is no god but You, glory be to You, indeed, I was among the wrongdoers"). When he said that, the fish cast him out, while he was [in the state of] one who was near to perishing.
And in agreement with what we have said about this, the scholars of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطْنِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ ("then he would have remained in its belly until the Day on which they are resurrected"): then the belly of the fish would have become a grave for him until the Day of Resurrection.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Mālik, saying: Yūnus remained forty days in the belly of the fish.
