They therefore cast lots a third time, and once again the lot fell upon him—exactly as Allah willed for the momentous affair that awaited him.

Allah, exalted is He, says:
“Jonah was indeed one of the Messengers; when he fled to the fully-laden ship, he drew lots and came up among the losers, so the fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy.”
(Q 37:139–142)

When the lot fell upon him he was thrown into the sea, whereupon Allah sent a tremendous fish from the Green Sea that swallowed him. Allah commanded the fish, “Do not consume any of his flesh and do not break any of his bones—you have not been given him for sustenance.” The creature then carried him, roaming with him through all the oceans.

Some reported that a still larger fish swallowed that first fish.

They said: when Jonah found himself settled in the belly of the fish he thought he had died. He moved his limbs and they moved, so he realized he was alive; he prostrated to Allah and said, “My Lord, I have made for You a place of worship in a spot (1) where no one has ever worshipped You before.”

The scholars differed over the length (2) of his stay inside the fish:
• Mujālid, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, said: it swallowed him in the forenoon and cast him out at sunset.
• Qatādah said: he remained three days.
• Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq said: seven days—and the poet Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt corroborates this, saying:

By Your gracious favor You delivered Jonah,
who spent within the folds of a fish his nights. (3)

• Saʿīd ibn Abī al-Ḥasan and Abū Mālik said: he stayed in its belly forty days.
Allah alone knows how long he actually remained there.

The point, however, is that as the fish carried him through the ocean depths and drove him into the surging, briny waves, he heard the other fish glorifying the All-Merciful, and even heard the pebbles glorifying the Splitter of grain and seed, Lord of the seven heavens and the seven earths, of all that lies between them and beneath the soil. Then and there he uttered, with both word and state, what he uttered, exactly as reported by the Possessor of might and majesty—He who knows what is secret and what is even more concealed, who removes hardship and affliction, who hears every voice however faint, knows every hidden thing however subtle, and answers every supplication however great. In His clear Book, revealed to His trustworthy Messenger—He is the truest of speakers, Lord of the worlds and God of all the Messengers—He says:

“And Dhu’l-Nūn, when he went off angry, thinking We would not constrain him, cried out in the darknesses, ‘There is no god but You! Glory be to You! I have indeed been among the wrongdoers.’ So We answered him and delivered him from distress; and thus do We deliver the believers.”
(Q 21:87–88)

“Thinking We would not constrain him” means: thinking We would not tighten matters upon him. It is also said that qadara here means “to decree,” for both qadara and qaddara are well-attested usages, as the poet said:

That time which has passed can never return;
Blessed are You! Whatever You decree shall be; to You belongs the command.

“As he cried out in the darknesses,” Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said