A deeper look into the Jonah question

The "Jonah question" is turning out to be tougher than expected.

There's a difference between God hating what people do -
and hating the people themselves.

Let's see if that could help with the "Jonah question".

This is part of a continuing series looking at God in the Qur'an, the Old Testament and the New Testament. 
If you haven't read it yet, part 1 is here.

Review

[68:48] You shall steadfastly persevere in carrying out the commands of your Lord. Do not be like (Jonah) who called from inside the fish.
[68:49] If it were not for his Lord's grace, he would have been ejected into the desert as a sinner.
[68:50] But his Lord blessed him, and made him righteous.
[68:51] Those who disbelieved show their ridicule in their eyes when they hear the message and say, "He is crazy!"
[68:52] It is in fact a message to the world

This is the closing for Sura 68 -
telling Muhammad to not be like Jonah.

Looking Deeper

So far, we've seen that there was an expectation for Muhammad to have either already known about Jonah from the Old Testament - or else to have done the reading himself to find out what it was about.  We've also seen there was no explicit statement from the angel about what the command to not be like Jonah was about.  So - whatever it was - it had to be something so obvious to him that it didn't need to be stated.  With that in mind, let's look deeper into the story of Jonah from the Old Testament.

BTW - I have read claims that the Bible was supposedly modified somewhere along the line -
that it doesn't accurately portray the true word of God - from a Muslim point of view.  
However - and this is a really big however -
without getting into that issue specifically,
I am not aware of anyone who claims the Bible has been corrupted since the time of Muhammad.  
Therefore -
the command to not be like Jonah can and must be understandable to us today from the Old Testament that we read,
since it is the same one that Muhammad would have read from.

 There was really a two part message in the book of Jonah.

BTW - if you haven’t read the book of Jonah yet -
or if you would like a refresher on it -
it’s right here.

So - the first way to look at the message is how it was meant for Jonah - which would correspond to what it should have meant to Muhammad.

Was God's message not just for the Israelites, but for everyone?

That would be - God’s message was meant for every - not just for the Israelites.
As we see in the very first verse - Jonah 1:1 - God says to Jonah -

Jnh 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:
2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against them.

At first - this may sound like God hates the people of Nineveh -
but as we find out - this was a warning for them to change their ways and turn to Him -
so he wouldn't have to destroy them and their city.

Doesn't sound like hate to me.

It’s what they were doing that God hated -
not the people themselves.

As for Jonah -
Jonah didn’t like the people.  Jonah wanted God to bring ruin to them.  That’s why he tried to run away from God - so he wouldn't have to bring a message to them that might have them turn towards God - and away from ruin - which is exactly what happened.
(For a time. Eventually they turned away from God and did suffer ruin.)

In any case -
God won’t let Jonah run away from Him -
or from the responsibility of preaching to the people of Nineveh.

After the experience in the great fish, Jonah does in fact end up in Nineveh.  Delivers God’s message.  
The people repent.  Turn to God.
And are not destroyed.

But Jonah -
he’s upset.  Because he really wanted to see God take out His wrath on the people.

We see Jonah waiting in the hot sun one day to see whether God will destroy Nineveh.  
God has a vine grow to give him shade from the hot sun -