And when the cause of his coming to them was the expansion of his chest; after he had experienced the constriction that necessitated what preceded it; he said: ﴿So they believed﴾; meaning: stripping themselves of the worldly desires; and adhering to the angelic attributes; and since their faith was the cause of lifting the punishment; which was necessitated for them by their disbelief; he said: ﴿So We granted them enjoyment﴾; meaning: and while We are upon what We are upon of greatness; that did not diminish our greatness in any way; nor did it increase it; ﴿for a time﴾; meaning: until the end of their appointed terms which We had set for them in the past. (p-297) Mention of the story of Yunus - peace be upon him - from the Book of the Prophets; the translator said: We begin with the help of Allah and His strength by writing the prophecy of Yunus son of Mattah; the Prophet: The word of the Lord came to Yunus son of Mattah; saying to him: Arise and go to Nineveh; the great city; and proclaim in it that your wickedness has ascended before Me; and Yunus arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord; and he went down to Jaffa; and found a ship that was going to Tarshish; so he gave the sailor a fare; and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish fleeing from the presence of the Lord; and the Lord hurled a great wind into the sea; so there was a great wave in the sea; and the ship was about to break; and the sailors were afraid; and each man cried out to his god; and they threw the cargo of the ship into the sea; to lighten it for them; but Yunus had gone down to the innermost parts of the ship; and had lain down; and was fast asleep; and the captain of the sailors came to him and said to him: What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise and call on your God, perhaps the Lord will save us; and we will not perish; and the man said to his companions: Come, let us cast lots, and find out on whose account this evil has come upon us? So they cast lots and the lot fell on Yunus; and they said to him: Tell us, what is this evil? And what is your occupation? And where do you come from? And of what people are you? And what is your land? So Yunus said to them: I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land; then the men were exceedingly afraid; and said to him: What have you done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them; and when they had asked him, they said: What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. And he said to them: Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know that this great tempest is because of me; and the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not; for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord; and said: O Lord, do not let us perish for this man's life; and do not lay on us innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You. So they took up Yunus and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly; and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Yunus; and Yunus was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights; and he said: I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice; and You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea; and the floods surrounded me; all Your waves and billows passed over me; (p-299) I said: I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple; the waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head; I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple; those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy; but I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Yunus onto dry land. And the word of the Lord came to him the second time, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you. So Yunus arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Yunus began to enter the city on the first day's walk; and he cried out and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes; and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water; but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. But it displeased Yunus exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said: O Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Now, O Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live! Then the Lord said: Is it right for you to be angry? So Yunus went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Yunus, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Yunus was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Yunus' head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said: It is better for me to die than to live. Then God said to Yunus: Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said: It is right for me to be angry, even to death! But the Lord said: You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock? The end.

And perhaps the origin of the mentioned gourd here grew on it when he came out from the belly of the whale; so when what was mentioned here occurred to him, he returned to it; and its greatness increased, so he built a shelter beneath it; and he sat under it; and from it, there was what there was; so at that time, what is here would not be contrary to what the people of reports mentioned in this story; and Allah is the Grantor of success.