According to a reliable tradition Imam Ja‘far as-Sadiq said, “The Prophet Dawud prayed to Allah: O My Lord! In Heaven, who will be like me and equal to my status? It was revealed to him: He will be Matta, the father of Yunus. Dawud sought permission to visit him. Allah allowed him. So he, along with his son Sulayman went to his house. They saw that the house was made of the leaves of a date tree. On inquiry they were told that he had gone to the bazaar. The people in the bazaar said he must be coming now. So they sat there waiting for him. Soon he arrived with a load of wood on his head. People arose to give him respect and they welcomed him. Matta put down the load and thanked Allah and asked: Is there anyone who would purchase a pure thing with pure money? Hearing this one person offered a price. Another said somewhat more than that. Finally he sold his wood to some body. Then Dawud and Sulayman came forward to meet him and saluted him and said,Salaamun alaikum. He responded to the salaam and took both of them to his house. He bought wheat or barley from what he had earned. He reduced it to flour himself, made a fire and prepared loaves. Then he sat down to talk. He broke the loaves into pieces and put them in a vessel and put some salt on them. He kept a bowl of water with him and sat down on hams uttering ‘bismillaahirrehmaanirraheem’ (In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful) and put a morsel of bread in his mouth and ate it chewing thoroughly and said,alhamdu lillaah (Praise be to Allah), then he took another morsel and did the same thing. Next he took up water saying ‘bismillaah’ (in the name of Allah), drank it and said ‘alhamdu lillaah’. Then he said, “O My Lord! To whom else have you given so much bounty. You have given me a healthy body, eyes and ears. You gave me enough strength to go to the tree which I did not plant nor took any trouble in protecting it. You made it my provision. It is you who sends me a purchaser for the wood who buys it and then I purchase my food from it which also I did not sow. You made the fire subservient to me in which I baked my loaves. You made it so nice that I ate it willfully so that I may get enough strength to worship you. So praise belongs only to you. Then he wept. Dawud said to Sulayman: Get up, O my son! We have never seen a slave who is more thankful than this person. Reference: Hayat Al-Qulub, Vol. 1, Stories of the Prophets
He will be Matta, the father of Yunus.
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