—in Sūrat al-Ṣāffāt:

“Indeed, Jonah was surely among the Messengers; when he fled to the fully laden ship, they cast lots and he was among the losers. Then the great fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy. Had he not been one of those who glorify Allah, he would have remained in its belly until the Day they are resurrected.” (al-Ṣāffāt 37:139-144)

Jonah (peace be upon him) was a prophet who once sailed with a group of people. The vessel became overburdened, and the passengers said, “If we all stay aboard in this condition, we shall perish and the ship will sink; we must throw some of us into the sea. But whom should we cast overboard—the first to board, the eldest, or the heaviest?” They therefore drew lots. The lot fell upon a number of them, Jonah included, or perhaps upon him alone, for the verse states, “they cast lots and he was among the losers.” If others were cast off with him, Allah alone knows their fate, for we have no information about what became of them.

As for Jonah, a gigantic fish swallowed him whole—gulping him down without chewing—so he found himself inside its belly. There, in the layers of darkness, he cried out, “There is no god but You! Glory be to You! I was indeed among the wrongdoers.” The fish then spewed him out onto the shore, and Allah caused a plant of yaqṭīn to grow over him. Scholars explain that yaqṭīn is the Najd squash: its fruit is tender, its leaves are as soft as fine silk, and flies do not settle upon it. Allah let this vine spread over Jonah until he regained strength after his time in the fish’s belly, and then Allah delivered him.

Thus drawing lots is a sanctioned practice, firmly established by both the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Ibn Rajab—may Allah have mercy on him—devoted an entire legal maxim to the occasions for using lots, covering every stage of jurisprudence, in his work al-Qawāʿid al-Fiqhiyyah.