Why you so Jonah eh? Every
person in medical field in Malaysia must have heard this word, Jonah. Doctors
commonly are labelled being Jonah or some anti-Jonah (fondly mentioned as
anti-J). Doctors & nurses would understand what I am saying J
But lots of time, when I
ask my colleagues do you know what/who is Jonah….the answer would be negative.
So I shall try to write on this briefly.
HOW
JONAH IS DEFINED IN THE DICTIONARY
According
to collinsdictionary.com :
1(a) a Hebrew prophet: thrown
overboard in a storm sent because he had disobeyed God, he
was swallowed by a big fish, but three
days later was cast up on the shore unharmed
WHO IS JONAH?
Jonah @ Yunus (alaihis-salam)
is a revered prophet mentioned in Old Testament & the Qurán.
Yes, he is a prophet
believed by Muslims as well as Jewish & Christians. I’m not going to talk
about the differences in how Muslims / Jewish / Christians beliefs regarding
his prophethood.
Prophet Yunus is one of
the 25 Rasul known to Muslims. He is the 21st in the list. He was
sent to a place named Ninawa (somewhere in Iraq) to get them to worship Allah as the only god.
After years of preaching (da’wah), Yunus (as) was so disappointed as only a
handful of Ninawa people accepted his teachings & prayed to Allah. Majority
belittled him & challenged him to call upon his god to send the
destructions that he has always been saying.
Yunus (as) became disillusioned
& left his people before Allah’s order came. His journey took him to shore
and boarded a loaded ship. In meantime, signs of destruction has arrived at
Ninawa & people of Ninawa started to repent were looking for Yunus to guide
them back to the right path. Nevertheless, their search were in vain as Yunus
(as) has already boarded the ship.
Meanwhile, the ship Yunus
(as) was in started to encounter rough sea. The captain of the ship made a
decision to remove someone in order to reduce load in the ship. They
unanimously agreed to draw lots. Thrice Yunus’name was drawn & he believed
that this is Allah’s will & jumped off the ship.
On Allah’s order, a big
fish (whale) swallowed Yunus and he stayed in its stomach & never stopped
repenting to Allah as he felt that he made a sin by leaving his people without
Allah’consent. The doá that Yunus recited was well captured in the Qurán (surah
Al-Anbiya’ : verse 87).
So eventually his act of
repentance was accepted by Allah & Yunus (as) was thrown out of the whale’s
stomach. He went back to his people and guided the right path.
*Story of Jonah is
depicted in bible (old testament) as well – book of Jonah.
SO
WHY JONAH BEING IMPLICATED AS SOMEONE WHO BRINGS BAD LUCK/JINXED?
Yunus (as) @ Jonah was
removed from the ship not because he brought bad luck, but it was merely meant
to reduce load in the ship as the sea was getting rough and above all it was God’s will. So why is
Jonah being implicated as someone with bad luck? Jonah left his people before
Allah’s command came & this incident served to be a reminder to Jonah &
all of us to be patient and seek guidance from Allah in the period of hardships.
OK, people might say..hey
this is just for fun! True we can take it that way, but as a practicing Muslim or Jewish/Christian alike, we should try to avoid using terms that belittles
our prophets. It sounds cool to be updated about vocabs & idioms in English
but will be good to know why certain terms/words are used and whether are they
appropriate or less appropriate.
We can probably use other
words like, Im ‘jinxed’, that is why my oncalls are always busy & I’m ‘blessed’
that is why my oncalls are always cool.
So, think about it peeps.
Just my two-cents.. Adios!
