The Story of Jonah (a.s.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Ustadz Sa’id Ukur Nursi (r.a.) said, “The Prophet Jonah (a.s.) was Cast into the sea and swallowed by a large fish.  The sea was stormy, the night was turbulent and dark, and hope was exhausted.  But it was while he was in such a situation that his supplication, ‘There is no god other than You, Glory be unto You!  Indeed, I was among the wrongdoers,’ acted for him as a swift means of salvation. 

Now we are in a situation many times more awesome and dangerous than that in which Jonah (a.s.) found himself.  Our ‘night’ is the future.  When we look upon our future with the eye of neglect, it is a hundred times darker and more fearful than his night.  Our ‘sea’ is this spinning globe.  Each wave of this sea bears on it thousands of corpses, and is thus a thousand times more frightening than Jonah’s (a.s.) sea.  Our ‘fish’ is the desires of our soul which strive to shake and destroy the foundation of our eternal life.  This ‘fish’ is a thousand times more fearsome and maleficent than his.  For his fish could destroy a hundred-year lifespan, whereas ours seeks to destroy a life lasting hundreds of millions of years!  Since this is our problem, we should follow Jonah’s (a.s.) example.  We should stop trusting in material causes and appeal directly to the Causer of causes, that is, our Sustainer, and say, ‘There is no god.’”