The fifth and sixth signs shift the story. The first four signs showed us what Allah will do and how. The final three signs show us through whom. Daoud and Yunus, the fifth and sixth signs, point toward the shape of what is coming. They are the last landmarks before the final arrival.
وَرَبُّكَ أَعۡلَمُ بِمَن فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِۗ وَلَقَدۡ فَضَّلۡنَا بَعۡضَ ٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ عَلَىٰ بَعۡضٖۖ وَءَاتَيۡنَا دَاوُۥدَ زَبُورٗا
“And it is your Lord who knows best whoever is in the heavens and the earth. And We have made some prophets exceed others in rank, and to Daoud We gave the Psalms.”
Surah Al-Isra 17:55 | quran.com/17/55
What is the sign of Daoud?
The Psalms, the Zabur, are full of descriptions of the coming Messiah. Daoud wrote of one who would suffer unjustly, who would be despised and rejected, whose hands and feet would bear wounds, who would die and rise again. He wrote these things hundreds of years before they happened. The sign of Daoud is prophecy: a detailed portrait of the Messiah painted in advance.
وَءَاتَيۡنَا دَاوُۥدَ زَبُورٗا
“And to Daoud We gave the Psalms.”
Surah An-Nisa 4:163 | quran.com/4/163
And what is the sign of Yunus?
وَإِنَّ يُونُسَ لَمِنَ ٱلۡمُرۡسَلِينَ إِذۡ أَبَقَ إِلَى ٱلۡفُلۡكِ ٱلۡمَشۡحُونِ فَسَاهَمَ فَكَانَ مِنَ ٱلۡمُدۡحَضِينَ فَٱلۡتَقَمَهُ ٱلۡحُوتُ وَهُوَ مُلِيمٞ فَلَوۡلَآ أَنَّهُۥ كَانَ مِنَ ٱلۡمُسَبِّحِينَ لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطۡنِهِۦٓ إِلَىٰ يَوۡمِ يُبۡعَثُونَ فَنَبَذۡنَٰهُ بِٱلۡعَرَآءِ وَهُوَ سَقِيمٞ
“And indeed, Yunus was among the messengers. When he ran away to the laden ship and drew lots and was among the losers. Then the fish swallowed him, while he was blameworthy. And had he not been of those who exalt Allah, he would have remained inside the fish until the Day they are resurrected. But We threw him onto the open shore while he was ill.”
Surah As-Saffat 37:139-145 | quran.com/37/139
Yunus was inside the fish. In darkness. For three days and three nights. And then he came out, alive. This is the sixth sign. Three days. Darkness. Then life again. The Injil records that Issa himself named this sign as the pattern of what would happen to him.
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Injil, Matthew 12:40 | bible.com/bible/111/MAT.12.40
What are these two signs together pointing to?
The Psalms of Daoud describe in detail the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Messiah. Yunus demonstrates in his own body the pattern: three days in darkness, then emergence into life. Together they point unmistakably forward. The Messiah will suffer. He will die. He will be in darkness for three days. And then he will come out alive.
Three Days, Darkness, Then Morning
A mapmaker told his grandson: the sixth landmark will seem strange to you. It is not a place. It is a shape.
The grandson found the sixth landmark and saw carved into the stone: three days. Darkness. Then morning.
He did not understand it yet. He wrote it down and continued walking.
When he arrived at the seventh landmark and the house built there, he found a room inside that was completely dark. He entered it. He could not see anything. He sat down on the floor.
After three days, the shutters opened automatically on a mechanism his grandfather had built. Light flooded the room.
He sat in the light for a long time. Then he understood the sixth landmark. His grandfather had not been describing a place. He had been describing what it feels like to pass through death into life. He had been trying to prepare him for the darkness before the light.
The fifth and sixth signs are the last preparation before Issa al-Masih arrives as the seventh. Daoud describes what the Messiah's death will look like, in precise detail, hundreds of years early. Yunus lives the pattern in his own body: three days in darkness, then life.
Before you read the seventh sign, sit quietly and ask Allah: what have You been preparing me for through all the signs I have just read?