Yunus and the whale

The story

On a rainy evening Yusuf will not give Raiha a turn as captain of the toy ship, stomps off to his room and sits in the dark feeling bad, while Noor the cat sails the laundry basket. Baba comes in, Raiha and Maryam follow, and he tells the story of Yunus, peace be upon him: the town that did not listen, the boat on the big waves, the whale in the dark sea, the dua said inside it, and the shore where Allah made a gourd plant grow to shade him. Yunus, peace be upon him, is never drawn: Baba tells the story over four picture-book paintings with no person in them, and the dua is spoken, never sung. Afterwards Yusuf says sorry to Raiha and gives her the ship.

What your child learned

• Allah sent Yunus, peace be upon him, to a big town by the sea, but the people did not listen. He became upset and left the town before Allah told him he could go.
• He got on a boat full of people and boxes, the waves grew big, the sailors picked a name to see who had to leave the boat, and it was his. He went into the deep, dark sea, and by Allah's command a big whale swallowed him.
• In the dark of the night, the dark of the deep sea and the dark inside the whale, he called out to Allah with La ilaha illa anta, subhanaka, inni kuntu minaz-zalimin. He did not hide and did not say it was not his fault. Allah heard him, answered him and saved him: the whale put him down on the shore, Allah made a gourd plant grow to shade him, and when he went back to his town, more than a hundred thousand people believed. Allah says in the Quran: and that is how We save the believers.
• Allah hears us everywhere, in the light and in the dark. When we do something wrong we do not run away and hide: we say sorry to Allah, and sorry to the person we hurt. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us that when a Muslim asks Allah with these words, Allah answers.

Talk about it at dinner

• Where was Yunus, peace be upon him, when he said his dua, and did Allah hear him?
• How did Yusuf put things right with Raiha after he shouted and walked away?
• What did Raiha do when she spilled Noor's water, and what did she do next?

Try this week

This week, when something goes wrong, practise not hiding it: say what happened, say sorry, and fix it together, the way Raiha owned up to the puddle and Yusuf to the green lemon. If the light goes off at bedtime, say the dua of Yunus together in the dark.

Print and do

Where it comes from

The teaching in this episode rests on these sources. The links open quran.com and sunnah.com, where you can read each one in Arabic and English.

• Yunus, peace be upon him, a messenger: Quran 37:139
• He went off in anger: Quran 21:87
• He ran away to the laden ship: Quran 37:140
• He drew lots and lost: Quran 37:141
• The whale swallowed him: Quran 37:142
• He called out in the darknesses with these words: Quran 21:87
• Allah answered him and saved him, "and thus do We save the believers": Quran 21:88
• Cast onto the open shore while ill: Quran 37:145
• The gourd plant: Quran 37:146
• Sent to a hundred thousand or more, who believed: Quran 37:147 to 148
• The same, the people of Yunus believed: Quran 10:98
• The darknesses as the night, the sea and the whale: Ibn Kathir's tafsir on Quran 21:87
• The rough sea: Ibn Kathir's tafsir on Quran 37:141
• The dua and its promise, no Muslim calls with it for anything, ever, except that Allah answers him: Jami at-Tirmidhi 3505 (sahih)

In this episode

1. 0:00 The toy ship
2. 0:50 Yusuf walks away
3. 1:43 The story of Yunus
4. 2:33 Inside the whale
5. 3:36 Allah heard him
6. 4:05 Saying sorry
7. 4:41 Say it with me
8. 5:43 The spilled water
9. 6:34 The green lemon
10. 7:30 The lamp goes out
11. 8:15 The Allah Hears Me song
12. 8:49 Quiz
13. 9:31 Sing along

From the same episode

• The Allah Hears Me Song, the song on its own with the words on screen (from Thursday 26 November).

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