In the Belly of the Whale

Some of the mufassirūn, the commentators on the Qur'an, say that Yūnus was unconscious, and then woke up in the stomach of the whale. He looked around him and thought he was — where? In the grave. He thought he was dead, for a while. But that impression did not last long, because he began feeling around him and found that this was not a grave; it was the stomach of a whale.

Now obviously, the stomach of a whale is not a five-star hotel. It is not a comfortable place to be. What is the stomach of a whale for? To digest food. And some of the most powerful enzymes and digestive fluids are in the stomachs of fish, because, if you notice, fish do not chew their food; they swallow it whole. If you dissect the stomach of a fish, you will find whole fish in there, breaking apart and dissolving from the power of the enzymes. It simply breaks the flesh apart.

So the skin of Yūnus was peeling off; his skin was falling away. The stomach did not know that this was Yūnus, a prophet of Allah; it was digesting him just like any other meal. And in this moment of difficulty, Yūnus (peace be upon him) ran to Allah (swt). He made sujūd, and said to Allah (swt): O Allah, I am prostrating to You in a place where no one has ever prostrated to You before — in the stomach of a whale. And then he made his famous duʿāʾ, which is recorded in the Qur'an.