Don’t Be Like Jonah – Sura 68 Part 5

Do not be like (Jonah) who called from inside the fish.

At the end of a very long and difficult revelation, Muhammad is told to not be like Jonah.

What does this mean?

Among other things, it obviously means that either Muhammad already knew the story of Jonah from the Jewish Bible - or he was expected to go get a Jewish Bible and learn about it from there!

Let's check this out further.

 Sura 68 - The Pen

Order of Revelation - 2
Traditional order in Qur’an - 68

Sura 68 addresses the following:

1.  The sense from the Prophet that his first revelation was actually from an evil spirit. This appears to be confirming what his wife told him - that Muhammad was not crazy / hallucinating / etc.
2.  Confirms that God can see what people are doing.
3.  Compares the revelations to the Prophet to what others are told by their idols (gods).
4.  Says that God can take care of Himself.
5.  Tells Muhammad not to be like Jonah.

Part 1 was covered in concerning the first revelation.

Part 2 was covered in God can see what people do

Part 3 was covered in Compare revelations to the Prophet to what others are told by their idols

Part 4 was covered in God can take care of Himself

5. Do not be like Jonah

[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.

Given that no details at all are provided as a reference point to understand what is meant by the command to not be like Jonah, we must conclude that the intent was to go to another source for information. Given that Muhammad was familiar with the Jewish Old Testament - it’s reasonable to assume that this was the intended source. After all - at this time - there was no animosity between them at the time of this revelation.  Further, in the event that Muhammad wasn't completely familiar with the events surrounding Jonah, there was clearly an intent that he go look it up and learn about it.  On top of that, there was full expectation that Jonah knew where this came from.  Otherwise, just making a statement to someone about some person named Jonah and telling them to not be like that person - it would be totally pointless.  Muhammad had to know at least enough about Jonah to be able to know what this meant.

So - let’s see what’s going on here -

Jonah Flees From the LORD

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.”

Jnh 1:3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish . He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Seriously - this is how the book starts.

God wants Jonah to go to Nineveh -
and preach against them because of their wickedness.

And Jonah runs away!

One could suspect that this comes up because Muhammad is considering doing the exact same thing.

We've already seen from previous articles -

He receives a revelation -
is afraid it’s from a Jinn (an evil spirit)
and is wondering if he’s going crazy.
His instinct is to stop.
But the second revelation tells him to not be like Jonah -
tells him to not run away.

OK - so far this makes sense.

So let’s continue.

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After the famous trip in the belly of the fish, God’s way of getting Jonah back on track and on his way to Nineveh, Jonah does finally get to Nineveh.  He does preach against them.  And they heed his warnings, as we see in Jonah 3 -

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

Jnh 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”