The First Flash

The supplication of Yunus ibn Matta2  (Peace be upon our Prophet and upon him) is a  most  powerful supplication,  a most  effective means  for obtaining  answer to prayer.3  The gist of the celebrated story of Jonah (Peace be upon him) is as follows:

He was cast into the sea and swallowed by a large fish. The sea was stormy, the night  turbulent and dark, and hope 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(21:87)

acted for him as a swift means of salvation. The secret of his supplication’s power was this:

In that situation all causes were suspended, for Jonah needed to save him one whose command should constrain the whale and the sea, and the night and the sky. The night, the sea, and the whale were united against him. Only one whose command might subdue all three of these could bring him forth on the strand of salvation. Even if the entiret y of creation had become his servants and helpers, it would have been of no avail. For causes have no effect.  Since Jonah saw with the eye of certainty that there was no refuge other than the Causer of  Causes, and unfolded to him was the meaning of divine oneness within the light of divine unity, his supplication was able suddenly to subdue the night, the sea, and the whale. Through the light of divine unit y he was able to transform the belly of the whale into a submarine; and the surging sea, which in its awesomeness resembled an erupting volcano, into a peaceable  plain, a pleasant place of excursion.  

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2     The Prophet Yunus in the Qur’an is the Biblical Jonah, which name is henceforth used in the present work. (Tr.)

3  Tirmidhi, Da‘wat, 81; Musnad, i, 170.