87 Preface وَذَا النّونِ إِذ ذَهَبَ مُغاضِبًا فَظَنَّ أَن لَن نَقدِرَ عَلَيهِ فَنادىٰ فِي الظُّلُماتِ أَن لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا أَنتَ سُبحانَكَ إِنّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظّالِمينَYusuf AliAnd remember Dhu al Nun,1 when he departed in wrath: He imagined that We had no power over him! But he cried through the deptHs### of darkness, “There is no god but thou: glory to thee: I was indeed wrong!”Dhu al Nun, “the man of the Fish or the Whale”, is the title of Jonah (Yunus), because he was swallowed by a large Fish or Whale. He was the prophet raised to warn the Assyrian capital Nineveh. For Nineveh see n. 1478 to 10:98. His story is told in 37:139-149. When his first warning was unheeded by the people, he denounced God’s wrath on them. But they repented and God forgave them for the time being. Jonah, meanwhile, departed in wrath, discouraged at the apparent failure of his mission. He should have remained in the most discouraging circumstances, and relied on the power of God; for God had power both over Nineveh and over the Messenger He had sent to Nineveh. He went away to the sea and took a ship, but apparently the sailors threw him out as a man of bad omen in a storm. He was swallowed by a big Fish (or Whale), but in the depth of the darkness, he cried to God and confessed his weakness. The “darkness” may be interpreted both physically and spiritually; physically, as the darkness of the night and the storm and the Fish’s body; spiritually as the darkness in his soul, his extreme distress in the situation which he had brought on himself. God Most Gracious forgave him. He was cast out ashore; he was given the shelter of a plant in his state of physical and mental lassitude. He was refreshed and strengthened, and the work of his mission prospered. Thus he overcame all his disappointment by repentance and Faith, and God accepted him.