Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 38227 — Sayings of Ikrimah

Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said regarding the saying of Allah Almighty, "Then the fish swallowed him" [As-Saffat: 142]: When the fish swallowed the prophet, it took him and placed him in the seventh earth. There he heard the earth glorifying Allah. This stirred him to glorify, and he began to say, "There is no god but You; glory be to You; indeed, I have been among the wrongdoers" [Al-Anbiya: 87]. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The fish brought the prophet out and cast him onto the land without hair or nails, like a newborn child. Allah Almighty made a tree grow beside him to give him shade. He used to eat insects beneath that tree. Once he was sleeping in the shade of that tree when its leaves, which had dried up, fell upon him. The prophet (peace be upon him) complained of this to his Lord, and the reply came to him: You grieve so much over one tree, so why do you not grieve over a hundred thousand or more who are being punished?