Fanabathnahu bilAAara-i wahuwa saqeem (surah Assaaffat: 145)

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

(37:145) But We threw him on a wide bare tract of land while he was ill; *82

Fanabaznaahu bil`araaa`i wa huwa saqeem

*82) That is, "When the Prophet Jonah confessed his fault, and began to glorify AIlah like a true and sincere believer, the fish spat him up on the beach by Allah's Command. The beach was a bare plain, without any vegetation on it, or anything to provide him shade, or any means of food." . Here, the rationalists have been heard expressing the misgiving that it is impossible for a tnan to come out alive from the belly of a fish. But, towards the end of the last century, an event took place near the sea-shores of England (the centre of this so-called rationalism), which belies this claim. In August, 1891, some fishermen went to the high sea to hunt whales in a ship called Star of the East. There they injured a great fish which was 20 feet long, 5 feet wide and weighed a hundred tons, but during the struggle the fish swallowed a fisherman, .lames Bartley, in front of the very eyes of his companions. Next day the same fish was found dead on the sea. The fishermen hauled it up on board and when they cut open its belly, James Bartley came out alive. He had remained in the fish's belly for full 60 hours. (Urdu Digest, February, 1964). Obviously, when such a thing is possible in normal circumstances naturally, wiry should it be impossible under abnormal conditions as a miracle of God?