Waarsalnahu ila mi-ati alfin aw yazeedoon (surah Assaaffat: 147)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(37:147) and We sent him forth to a nation of a hundred thousand or more, *84

Wa arsalnaahu ilaa mi`ati alfin aw yazeedoon

*84) The mention of "a hundred thousand people or more" does not mean that Allah had any doubt about their number, but it means that a casual observer would have estimated the population to be more than a hundred thousand people in any case. Probably it was the same place which the Prophet Jonah had left and fled. After his departure when the people of the place saw the scourge approaching they believed, but this was only a kind of repentance which was accepted and the scourge averted. Now, the Prophet Jonah was again sent .to them so drat the people should believe in him as a Prophet and become Muslims formally. To understand this, one should keep in view verse 98 of Surah Yunus.