115

name of ' the hill of lamentations' and ' the hill of repent-
ance.' There they separated the children from their
mothers and the young from the old, threw ashes on their
own heads, put shackles of thorns on their feet, beginning
to weep, to mourn, and to lament. After forty days and
nights had elapsed in this manner, the Lord and Bounteous
Granter commanded Jebrail—at the intercession of the
chief angels—to remove the punishment. Allah—the most
magnificent and glorious—has said: ' And if it [were] not
[so], some city [among the many which have been destroyed]
would have believed, and the faith of its [inhabitants] would
have been of advantage to them; [but none of them believed
before the execution of their sentence] except the people of
Yiinas.'120

It is related that after the release of the people of Ninva
from the affliction, Yunas left his refuge and went to the
city to see what had become of the people. On the road he
met an individual, inquired about this matter, and learnt
what had passed, as has just been related. Therefore
Yiinas returned sad and angry, thinking that if he were to
go among the people they would again accuse him of false-
hood. Some state that the source of evil, namely, Eblis,
assumed the human form, and said to Yunas : f Go not to
the city, because the people will accuse thee of falsehood.*
Therefore he departed in wrath. Ebn A'bbas—u. w. b., etc.
—relates that everyone who imagines that his wrath
originated from his thinking that the people would accuse
him of falsehood, will be set right by the following verse
which Allah uttered: 'And thought that We could not
exercise power over him,'121 namely, that the affliction and
chastisement [of God] could not reach him.

Tradition informs us that after the cessation of the
punishment of God, Yunas joined his family on the sea-
shore, where he found a ship full of men who were just
starting on a voyage, whereon he requested them to bo
likewise allowed to embark with his followers, and they
replied: 'Our ship is heavily laden; if it be convenient to.

12° Qur£n, cb. x. 08. 121 Ibid., cb. xxi. 87.

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