[Sūrah xxi. 89]: “And Zacharias; when he called upon his Lord saying, ‘O my Lord, leave me not childless: but there is no better heir than Thyself.’ So we heard him, and gave him John, and we made his wife fit for child-bearing. Verily, these vied in goodness, and called upon us with love and fear, and humbled themselves before us.”
[Sūrah vi. 85]: “And we guided … Zacharias, and John, and Jesus, and Elias, all righteous ones.”
JOKING. Arabic Mizāḥ (مزاح). It is said Muḥammad was fond of jesting, but Ibn ʿAbbās relates that the Prophet said, “Do not joke with your brother Muslim to hurt him.”
Anas relates that the Prophet said to an old woman, “No old woman will enter Paradise.” The old woman said “Why?” And the Prophet said, “Because it is written in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah lvi. 35]) ‘We have made them virgins.’ There will be no old women in heaven.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. xii.)
JONAH. Arabic Yūnus (يونس). Mentioned in the Qurʾān as a prophet, and as Sāḥibu ʾl-Ḥūt and Ẕū ʾn-Nūn, “He of the Fish.”
[Sūrah xxxvii. 139–148]: “Jonas, too, was one of the Apostles (mursalīn), when he fled unto the laden ship, and lots were cast, and he was doomed, and the fish swallowed him, for he was blameworthy. But had he not been of those who praise Us, in its belly had he surely remained, till the day of resurrection. And we cast him on the bare shore—and he was sick;—and we caused a gourd-plant to grow up over him, and we sent him to a hundred thousand persons, or even more, and because they believed, we continued their enjoyments for a season.”
[Sūrah lxviii. 48–50]: “Patiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in the fish (Ṣāḥibu ʾl-Ḥūt), when in deep distress he cried to God. Had not favour from his Lord reached him, cast forth would he have been on the naked shore, overwhelmed with shame: but his Lord chose him and made him of the just.”
[Sūrah x. 98] (called the Sūratu Yūnus): “Verily they against whom the decree of thy Lord is pronounced, shall not believe, even though every kind of sign come unto them, till they behold the dolorous torment! Were it otherwise, any city, had it believed, might have found its safety in its faith. But it was so, only with the people of Jonas. When they believed, we delivered them from the penalty of shame in this world, and provided for them for a time. But if thy Lord had pleased, verily all who are in the earth would have believed together. What! wilt thou compel men to become believers?”
[Sūrah vi. 86]: “We guided … Ishmael and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot.”
[Sūrah xxi. 87]: “And Ẕū ʾn-Nūn (he of the fish), when he went on his way in anger, and thought that we had no power over him. But in the darkness he cried, ‘There is no God but Thou: Glory be unto Thee! Verily, I have been one of the evil doers’: so we heard him and rescued him from misery: for thus rescue we the faithful.”