Those Who Set The Ranks
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[37:142]
[and they cast him into the sea,] whereupon the great fish swallowed him, for he had been blameworthy.

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* v.142 : In all the three instances where Jonah’s “great fish” is explicitly mentioned in the Qur’ān (as al-hūt in the above verse and in 68:48, and an-nūn in 21:87), it carries the definite article al. This may possibly be due to the fact that the legend of Jonah was and is so widely known that every reference to the allegory of “the great fish” is presumed to be self-explanatory. The inside of the fish that “swallowed” Jonah apparently symbolizes the deep darkness of spiritual distress of which 21:87 speaks: the distress at having “fled like a runaway slave” from his prophetic mission and, thus, “from the presence of the Lord.” Parenthetically, the story is meant to show that, since “man has been created weak” (4:28), even prophets are not immune against all the failings inherent in human nature.