395. Can a person remain alive in the belly of a fish?
These verses (37:142, 21:87, 68:48) of the Quran say Prophet Yunus was imprisoned in the belly of a fish for a few days.
Now a question by the skeptics is raised regarding the possibility of man remaining alive inside the belly of a fish.
Though Allah can perform feats not normally possible by human beings, we present scientific evidence also about the possibility of a human staying alive inside the belly of a fish.If ever there is a fish that could swallow a whole human being it is the whale.
There are various types of whales found in the oceans, of these, the one known as the Blue Whale is the largest, in fact the largest of the animal species in the world. The tongue of this whale is so large that it can accommodate fifty persons seated on it, and it is not a ferocious animal but a soft natured one.
The size of its belly is not hard to imagine when the size of the tongue is given to hold a seating capacity of fifty people.
Whales are different from other types of fishes, though these belong to the class of fishes, they remain an exception in that class, because they breastfeed their young like mammals, and breathe through their lungs unlike the other fishes that breathe through their gills.
These whales come up to the surface of the sea from their depths to take in oxygen that might last them up to two hours at a time. Moreover, they take in 90% of the oxygen available in the air whereas humans could breathe in only 15% of it present in the air, a reason they can hold on to oxygen in their lungs even at a depth of 7000 feet.
When the amount of oxygen in the belly of the whale is taken into consideration while it is alive inside the sea waters, it was indeed possible for Prophet Yunus to stay alive inside, because the whale was in a position to come out of the water to take in oxygen whenever the need arose for it. In this way Prophet Yunus did not face scarcity of oxygen while inside the belly of the whale. When a person is placed within an airtight glass enclosure, the air present in the enclosure is good enough to hold him alive for a few hours. And the air that is taken in by the whale containing excess oxygen, the stay by Prophet Yunus inside the belly of the whale cannot be considered as something against science. And this incident can be considered as a message foretelling exception in organism.
