Repentance; never losing hope in Allah's mercy
Tonight's story is about what happens when even a prophet makes a mistake, and about a prayer so powerful that it can reach Allah from inside the belly of a whale at the bottom of a dark sea. It is the story of Yunus (AS), and it carries a message that every person, no matter how far they feel they have fallen, needs to hear: it is never too late to turn back to Allah.
Yunus was sent as a prophet to the people of Nineveh, a great city that had turned away from Allah. Its people were steeped in sin and idol worship. Yunus delivered the message faithfully. He called them to truth. He warned them of the consequences of their actions. Day after day, he spoke. And day after day, they refused.
Yunus grew frustrated. He had done his duty. They were not listening. So he made a decision: he left. He walked away from the city and its stubborn people. He went to the sea and boarded a ship, heading anywhere but Nineveh.
But here is the lesson, and it is a difficult one: leaving was not his choice to make. Allah had assigned him to those people, and Yunus departed without Allah's permission. He was not running from danger. He was running from a task that felt hopeless. And that distinction matters.
A storm arose at sea. The waves grew monstrous. The ship tossed and rolled. The sailors, experienced men of the ocean, knew that something was wrong. They believed that someone on the ship had brought this calamity. They drew lots to determine who it was. The lot fell on Yunus. They drew again. It fell on Yunus again. And a third time, the same.
Yunus understood. He had run from his responsibility, and the consequences had followed him onto the sea. He told the sailors to throw him into the water. They hesitated. He was a good man; they could see that. But the storm raged, and finally, they cast him into the waves.
The moment Yunus hit the water, the storm stopped. But Yunus did not sink to a simple death. Allah had prepared something else. From the depths of the dark sea, an enormous whale rose and swallowed Yunus whole.
Imagine that darkness. Not the darkness of a room where you can still feel the walls. Not the darkness of night where stars might appear. This was the darkness of the inside of a whale, inside the depths of the ocean, at the bottom of the sea. Three darknesses layered upon each other: the darkness of the whale's belly, the darkness of the deep sea, and the darkness of the night. Total, absolute, suffocating darkness.
In that darkness, Yunus could have given up. He could have decided that it was too late, that he was too far gone, that no prayer could reach Allah from inside the belly of a creature at the bottom of the ocean. Many people, when they feel they have made a terrible mistake, give up at that very point. They tell themselves: "I have gone too far. Allah will not forgive me now."
But Yunus did not give up. In the deepest darkness he had ever known, he raised his voice, or perhaps just his heart, and spoke the words that would become one of the most beloved prayers in all of Islam:
"La ilaha illa Anta, Subhanaka, inni kuntu minaz-zhalimeen."
"There is no deity except You. Glory be to You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers."
He did not make excuses. He did not blame the people of Nineveh. He did not say, "But I tried my best." He acknowledged his error with total honesty: "I have been of the wrongdoers." And he turned to the only One who could save him.
The Quran says: "So We responded to him and saved him from the distress. And thus do We save the believers."
The whale rose to the surface and cast Yunus out onto the shore. He was weak, exhausted, his skin sensitive from the whale's interior. The Quran describes it beautifully: "And We caused to grow over him a gourd vine." Allah did not just save him; He nursed him back to health. A shading vine grew over his bare body to protect him from the sun while he recovered.
And then Allah sent him back to Nineveh. But this time, the ending was different. The people of Nineveh, perhaps shaken by the signs they had seen, perhaps finally ready to hear the message they had been rejecting, repented. The entire city turned to Allah and believed. The Quran mentions them as the only community that believed as a whole and was saved from punishment as a result.
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said about Yunus's prayer: "The supplication of Dhun-Nun which he made when he was in the belly of the whale: 'La ilaha illa Anta, Subhanaka, inni kuntu minaz-zhalimeen.' No Muslim ever prays to his Lord with these words for anything but that Allah will answer him."
Think about that. This prayer, born in the darkest place imaginable, has the power to reach Allah from anywhere. From a hospital bed. From a moment of shame. From a place where you feel no one can hear you. If it can reach Allah from inside a whale at the bottom of the sea, it can reach Him from wherever you are.
In the Shia tradition, the story of Yunus is a powerful reminder that tawbah, repentance, is always available. Imam Ali (AS) said: "The most helpless of all people is the one who is unable to pray." And Imam al-Sajjad (AS), the fourth Imam, composed entire collections of supplications, the Sahifah al-Sajjadiyyah, teaching that no matter how heavy your burden of mistakes, the door of Allah's mercy is always open.
The only person who cannot be forgiven is the one who does not ask for forgiveness. And Yunus, from the belly of a whale, taught the whole world how to ask.
Fa nada fiz-zhulumati an la ilaha illa Anta, Subhanaka, inni kuntu minaz-zhalimeen. Fastajabna lahu wa najjaynahu minal ghamm, wa kadhalika nunjil mu'mineen "And he called out within the darknesses: There is no deity except You. Glory be to You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers. So We responded to him and saved him from the distress. And thus do We save the believers." Al-Anbiya (21:87-88)