What Actually Saved Prophet Yunus?

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

I have a question. Let's start off tonight with a very brief and quick question. What is it that saved Yunuson? What is it that saved him after being swallowed by the whale? That's what saved him. What do you say before being swallowed by the whale? Anyone else? Let me ask you a question. So, he's swallowed by a whale, right? This is horrifying beyond belief. Okay. And he was in a Sovat here is plural and in Arabic the least of plural is three not two is three. So he was in And Allah tells us that he was in the darkness of the belly, the darkness of the water, the darkness of the night. What's interesting is that before that he was he did what is called What does all this mean? So, Yunam called his people. His people were a big city, not a small one. more than 100,000 residents. More than 100,000. This is a huge city. He called them to Islam. They refused his message. They refused his message. They refused his message. And so, Yunus decided to what? to go deliver this message elsewhere to a different people, a people that would be more thankful for this message. However, Yunas did not have permission from Allah to do that. He was sent to these people, not those people over there. And so, as Ununas left, he got on a boat to cross the water. And while they were on this boat, the boat was to capacity and actually he was taken on the boat without any without any payment because they knew him. They knew he was a righteous man. He was a good man. And so they took him on for free. But then the water got very chaotic. And as they were in the water, they realized that we have too much weight on the boat. Some people are going to have to go and someone is going to have to take one for the team. So how do they make such a decision? Who is going to die so that the rest can live? So they decided to draw straws. What we call draw drawing straws. in older English it would be referred to as drawing lots. In the Quran it is referred to as mahana. And what that means is that they will do something that will randomize the option. We say in English drawing straws which means that for instance you have a number of straws they all appear to be the same length. Whoever draws the straw that is shortest that's the one that gets caught with it. It wasn't in this exact way but it was the same concept. And so the first time it comes out as Ununus, they say, "No way are we going to throw Eunos of all people overboard this ship. Let's do it again." They drew again and it was Ununas. They said, "No way. We can't we can't we can't live with ourselves to throw this man. This is the best of us." So they did it again and it was Ununas. And so they continued doing this, refusing to throw Eunas overboard. But Yunas, he understood something. He understood that this is about him. And that if they were to draw those straws for a million years, it would always be him. And so Eunas jumped overboard. And when he did, a whale came and gobbled him up. I I can think of few things on this earth more horrifying than that. I mean, in you know, in in in cartoons like Pinocchio, right? It's a cute kind of thing. the whale swallows him and he's sitting in there and he's got a lamp and a desk and he's sitting there writing stuff, right? It's so cute. This is not cute at all. This is absolutely horrifying. Can you imagine the claustrophobia? Could you imagine the crush? Could you imagine the pain and the fear? And not only that, but the acids of this giant monster start to eat the skin right off of his body. And so in this situation, he says, "Is that a dua?" Did he say, "Oh Allah, allow me to live. Take me back to the shore. Save me." Did he say that? And maybe had something of that in his heart. But the prophets and messengers, they do not ask for things that they are unsure whether they will be good or bad for them. They leave it to Allah's discretion. You'll see this all through the Quran when it comes to things that they are sure are good such as Allah's forgiveness such as paradise such as they ask for it by name they specify oh Allah give me paradise oh Allah oh Allah you know oh Allah right these are things that they are sure are good for them But then other things being healed from an illness, being delivered from the belly of a whale, given something of the dunya, what is their dua? It is actually an expression of oh Allah give me what is best for me. So says I'm in pain. but unto your discretion said whatever you got for me I need it desperately said he didn't say spare me from this because maybe it is better for him to stay in there. Maybe it is better to be digested by a whale. You don't know. You don't know. Maybe this illness will go away and that will seal your fate because health is what will swindle you off of the path of Allah. And maybe that as long as you are ill, you will be grateful. You will be conscious. You will be aware. You will be connected. And what is what good is health if it leads you to disbelief? What good is strength if it is the cause for your transgression? This is what the prophets understand about this and that is why Allah teaches us something about ourselves. The human being makes dua for that which is bad for him with the same fervor that he does for that which is good. Why does he do that? Because he doesn't know what's good for him and he is impatient. And a lot of what he says and does comes from a place of impatience. And so makes this statement and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that had it not been for the fact that he was of those who glorified Allah, then he would have remained in that whale's belly until the day of resurrection. Now, a lot of people misunderstand this to mean that had it not been for him making dua that moment. But let me ask you a question. Is there any human being on this earth? Imagine the most arrogant, the most atheist, the most disbelieving scum of humanity. Imagine this person get swallowed by a whale. Would they make dua to Allah at that point or not? Huh? Everyone makes dua at that point. At the moment of death, is there anyone that fails to become Muslim? When the soul is being extracted from the body, everyone at that moment says what? says what said. That's why a person's repentance is not accepted when their soul is being extracted from their body because that's not particularly special. Everybody makes dua and repents at that moment. Everyone says when they get swallowed by a whale, everyone. Pharaoh Elim himself will make the purest of dua in that situation. That's not what saves you here. What saves you is his relationship and the buildup of his relationship with Allah before he got swallowed by the whale. That's what really makes the difference that before he reached that moment of dire need of Allah, he had a history with Allah. Do we know the story the narration of Abdullahb Omar and Bkari Muslim the story of the the three men who went into a cave for the night and a boulder closed the cave on him. And so each of them made dua for what? They made dua and they made with their good deeds. And what saved them from that was what? Their dua at that moment. Everyone is going to become a Muslim if they get trapped in a cave. But what saved them was? their good deeds, their account with Allah, their history with Allah that they could draw from to use at that most dire instance. And this is the meaning or one of the meanings of the statement of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he says.

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The statement of Allah remember me, make mention of me and I shall make mention of you or remember me and I will remember you. It has two meanings. Meaning that every time you say Allah's name, every time you remember Allah, Allah makes mention of your name in the heavens. And it also means that what our prophet told Ib Abbas when he was riding with him in that very famous narration he said worship Allah get to know Allah acquaint yourself with Allah acquaint yourself to Allah in your times of ease and he will remember you in your time of difficulty. This is what saved Yunas. What saved Yunas was his history with Allah. And so when we stand and this is also mentioned as what saved S from Nam when Sarah Ibraim's wife was taken by a tyrannical king a tyrannical king that perhaps puts Found to shame this tyrannical king took him and SIM she drew from her previous relationship with Allah. Oh Allah, if you know me to be a believer in you, then protect me from this from this man. And so on it goes. This is what separates the believer from the disbeliever. It's not what you do in your times of difficulty. It's what we do in our times of ease. And so every time you make salah, every time you stand for prayer, you must understand that you will have hard days ahead of you. Every one of us. There's not one of us here that's not going to die. There's not one of us here that's not going to be faced with calamities. There's not one of us here that will shed a bucket of tears before departing from this earth. Every one of us. However, every time you go to pray, every time you fast, every time you remember Allah, in those times of ease, comfort, safety, health, remember Allah. And know that the only most loyal is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is true loyalty. and true loyalty that he not only is a shakur means that he thanks those who thank him but he subhanahu wa ta'ala will not just be at your beckoned call he subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you what you need at your most confused and weak of states Subhanahu wa tala.

[Silence]

Subhan Allah.

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Is it just me or is it hot in here?

[Arabic recitation]