Sumayya

When Yunus AS left his people without divine command telling him to do so, he put his frustration at his people above his responsibility from Allah. The whale or fish swallowing Yunus AS was in a way Allah giving him an opportunity to come back to Him. Whenever we go through trial or hardship, it serves to increase us in Iman and seek Allah's forgiveness and pleasure. And here, Allah says that had Yunus AS not been of the ones who constantly glorified Allah, then he would have remained there. This teaches us that habits we form in times of ease will aid us in times of hardship. If we are in the habit of praising Allah in times of ease, then that habit would prepare us for the times of hardsh

These first few ayahs of this surah are short and concise. It lists the qualities of the believers as a sort of yardstick to measure where you fall. Do you have kushoo'? Do you pray on time? Do you avoid ill speech and gossip? Do you pay zakah? Do you keep your promises and fulfill what you're entrusted with? Most of these qualities can be achieved by a clean heart that exercises control.

The comparison in the first ayah depicts a person who is determined to sustain a need; someone who actively seeks it. The deeds that disbelievers continue to perform do not benefit them and they come up short on the day of judgement because those deed were never a source of Allah's pleasure and forgiveness. Similarly, the mirage is not actually a source of water. I find it interesting the use of a mirage to represent the disbelievers' actions in this Surah, Surah An-Noor (the Light) because a mirage is essentially a result of light. The light that causes a mirage is bent and not straight. So the disbelievers may think they are upon light or truth, but they are upon their own illusion of lig