without any feathers. Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Suddī, and Ibn Zayd said: “He was like a newborn child, just delivered, with nothing whatsoever upon him.” Concerning the verse, “And We caused a tree of yaqtīn to spring up over him,”

Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Wahb ibn Munabbih, Hilāl ibn Yasāf, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Suddī, Qatādah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, and many others all said: “It is the gourd.”

Some scholars have remarked that the choice of the gourd carries many benefits: its leaves are extremely soft, abundant, and provide shade; flies do not alight upon it; its fruit can be eaten from the moment it first appears until it ripens, whether raw or cooked, and even its rind and seeds are edible. It yields numerous advantages, strengthens the brain, and so forth.

We have already cited Abū Hurayrah’s report that Allah subjected to him a wild ewe which grazed in the open country yet came to him every morning and evening, spreading its legs over him and suckling him with its milk. All of this was an expression of Allah’s mercy, His favor, and His kindness toward him. For that reason the Almighty said: “So We answered him and delivered him from distress,” that is, from the hardship and constriction he was suffering; “and thus do We save the believers,” meaning: this is Our practice with everyone who calls upon Us and seeks refuge in Us.

Ibn Jarīr transmitted—ʿImrān ibn Bakkār al-Kulāʿī told us; Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ told us; Abū Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān told me; Bishr ibn Manṣūr, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib—who said: I heard Saʿd ibn Mālik (that is, Ibn Abī Waqqāṣ) say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare:

“The Name of Allah by which, when He is invoked, He answers, and when He is asked, He gives, is the supplication of Jonah son of Mattā.”

I asked, “Messenger of Allah, is it reserved for Jonah alone, or is it for the community of Muslims as well?” He replied, “It is specific to Jonah son of Mattā, yet it is general for the believers whenever they invoke it. Have you not heard the words of Allah:
‘He cried out in the darknesses, “There is no god but You; glory be to You! Truly I was among the wrongdoers.” So We answered him and saved him from distress, and thus do We deliver the believers’ (Q 21:87–88)?
This is a divine pledge to whoever calls upon Him with it.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim likewise recorded: Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj related to us; Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar, from Kathīr ibn Zayd, from al-Muṭṭalib ibn Ḥanṭab—Abū Khālid said, “I think it comes through Muṣʿab, meaning Ibn Saʿd”—from Saʿd, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever supplicates with Jonah’s prayer will be answered.” Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj added, “By this he meant the verse, ‘And thus do We save the believers.’” These are two chains from Saʿd, and a third—sounder than both—runs as follows:

Imām Aḥmad said: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar related to us; Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Hamdānī related to us;