48فَاصبِر لِحُكمِ رَبِّكَ وَلا تَكُن كَصاحِبِ الحوتِ إِذ نادىٰ وَهُوَ مَكظومٌMuhammad AsadBEAR THEN with patience thy Sustainer's will and be not like him of the great fish, who cried out [in distress] after having given in to anger.1This is a reference to the Prophet Jonah - see 21:87 and the corresponding notes 82 and 83. As mentioned in 37:140, "he fled like a runaway slave" from the task with which he had been entrusted by God, because his people did not all at once accept his preaching as valid: and so Muhammad is exhorted not to give in to despair or anger at the opposition shown to him by most of his contemporaries in Mecca, but to persevere in his prophetic mission.