Jonah's whale! and was it a whale?
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Peace be upon you,
I was reading something the other day and it was explained to me that pigs and fishes are the two hardest animals to influence. This furthers my understanding that the metaphor of Jonah was about his emotion(animals personify the animating principle-emotions). It was a big fish becaus it was a big/strong emotion that caused him to be placed UNDER WATER.
Water is also a symbol for the subconcious, which is where are emotions work on us. Emotions knock us around like the waves of the ocean. What we strive for is to become awake/conscious so that we can direct our emotions, not be ruled by them.
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"Biggest Fish Ever Found" Unearthed in U.K. http//64.233.183.104/search?q=cacheVnDyN4wTNkkJnews.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1001_031001_biggestfish.html+"biggest+fish"+"22+meters"&hl=no&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=no&client=firefox-a
and in arabic, any thing which live in water is called fish(Al-Hut). and translator have translete it into a whale.
give me a break, iltaqama mean swallow, dont change meaning of this word just becuse to show that you are right. thats word iltaqama is used in ayah not the word laqm.Quran 2187
Literally Dhun-nun means "the man of the fish"more on that at http//www.tafseercomparison.org/study6A.asp?TitleText=Study%206A%20Yunus%20(a.s.)
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and in arabic, any thing which live in water is called fish(Al-Hut).
Agreed.
and translator have translete it into a whale.
Because of blindly following the Bible. The Quran is the Furqan, it would not repeat stories, it tries to show the real story.
give me a break, iltaqama mean swallow, dont change meaning of this word just becuse to show that you are right. thats word iltaqama is used in ayah not the word laqm.
Laqm is the rootword, thus determines the meaning. It means rather take a small bite or piece in the mouth and then it could be swallowed. But it does not mean to swallow something in whole.
Quran 2187
Why put the fish stomach between brackets? Because it is not in the verse but an interpretation. There is a much more logical interpretation of the story. But to each its own.
In 2187 zoeloemat means calamities or distress. That it also refers to darkness is because the human is not able to find his way out of the distress and harm, and by thus is wandering in darkness. It is important to know the whole background of Arabic words to understand these verses. So by no means at all does the darkness refers to being inside a belly of a fish, which is also impossible as any belly contains acid. The darkness refers to the distress of the situation. See Tafseer by Muhammed Asad.
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Peace Arnold and everyone,
Explanation of the Arabic used
Jonah was never swallowed by a fish, as EVERY fish known on earth will have to bite you in pieces before he can swallow you.
The word iltaqama doesn't only mean to swallow, it comes from the same root as laqm which means a small bite or little piece, iltiqama means he took him in his mouth/grabbed him in his teeth, as for example iltaqama fa-ha-fi-l-taqbil means he took her lips in his mouth during kissing. These verses are totaly distorted by the Biblical account.
Allegorical approach
Muhammed Asad's explanation of the verses
whereupon the great fish swallowed him, for he had been blameworthy.
(143)
And had he not been of those who extol God?s limitless glory, (144) he would indeed have remained in its belly till the Day when all shall be raised from the dead (145) but We caused him to be cast forth on a desert shore, sick as he was, (146) and caused a creeping plant to grow over him .
[I.e., to shade and comfort him. Thus, rounding off the allegory of Jonah and the fish, the Quran points out in the figurative manner so characteristic of its style that God, who can cause a plant to grow out of the most arid and barren soil, can equally well cause a heart lost in darkness to come back to light and spiritual life.
Interesting post. It seems that there are some verses in english translations of the Quran regarding messengers, which have been mistranslated and misinterpreted. I wonder why there are no miracles in the stories of most of the messengers in the English translations of the Quran? Why are there are there only miracles in the stories of Moses, Isa, Zechariah, Joseph Solomon, Jonah, Saleh and Mary? Why are there no miracles in the stories of Abraham, Noah, Jacob, David, Shuayb, John the Baptist, Lot, Aaron, Isaac, Ishmael, Hud, Luqman, Dhul-Qarnayn or Muhammad? I think that these questions are worth pondering upon.
I don't have a problem in believing in miracles. But I think that it is important to question traditional understandings of the Quran. Because they might be wrong. Unfortunately, a lot of traditional understandings of the Quran are based on non-quranic sources (e.g. the Bible). Also, many understandings of the Quran are based on Hadith. From my understanding of the Quran, the Quran explains itself. Hence it seems that we don't need non-quranic sources like the Bible or Hadith to understand/explain the stories of messengers/apostles in the Quran.
Some muslims and christians think that the miracles of the messengers = unexplained natural phenomena. Are they right or are they wrong? This question is worth pondering upon, in my opinion.
Perhaps there are miracles in some stories in the Quran (e.g. Josephs ability to interpret dreams). And perhaps there are some stories in the Quran which have no miracles (e.g. Abraham and the resurrection of birds).
Many people people think that there is a miracle in the story of Abraham. But to me, it seems that there is no miracle in the story of Abraham. In my view, the story of Abraham and the birds have a natural explanation (see verse 2260 in Muhammad Asad's translation of the Quran).
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Misjudgment by Male Whale saves Yunus alahissalam.
Know the fact; Yunus was performing assignment as one of the sent Messengers;
When on assessing complete unresponsiveness he abandoned-absconded-ran; after walking away from his nation in the state-grip of heightened feeling of anger-heavy heartedness, towards the already embarked-Laden Ship, ready to sail. .
Thereby, because of heightened feeling of anger and running he became weak-dehydrated-haggard. Resultantly, he was in the state of slipped ones/loosing hold of feet falling into the sea.
Thereat, for reason of having slipped and fallen in Sea, certain male Whale made effort and swallowed him whole, while he was in sluggish state awaiting and expecting help for rescue.
Contd
Misjudgment by Male Whale saves Yunus alahissalam