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The Islamic Whale

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The Islamic whale (in Arabic الحوت الإسلامية, al-hoot al-islamiyya), is a big whale, that supposedly carries the Earth on it's back. It is also called Nun (نون), which is the name of the Arabic letter ن. The name of the whale is also said to be Liwash or Lutiaya[1]. This article analyzes the details of this Islamic whale hypothesis.

Nun in the Qur'an

Nun is mentioned in the verse 68:1. The biggest scholars of Islam (Ibn Kathir, At-Tabari..) agree that Nun refers to the whale, which carries the Earth on its back:

نٓ وَٱلْقَلَمِ وَمَا يَسْطُرُونَ
Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe,
Quran 68:1

Word-by-word translation:

  • نٓ - noon - the name of the whale
  • وَٱلْقَلَمِ - wal-qalam - by the pen (wa- prefix means "and" or "by")
  • وَمَا - wa-ma - and what
  • يَسْطُرُونَ - yasturoona - they write

There is not much information in the Qur'an, but as we'll see, it is necessary to understand the existence of the Islamic whale for understanding other verses of the Qur'an (for example, about mountains being like pegs).

There is also a verse, where Jonah is called "man of the Nun", because he was eaten by a whale[2]:

And [mention] the man of the fish (ٱلنُّونِ, al-noon), when he went off in anger and thought that We would not decree [anything] upon him. And he called out within the darknesses, "There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers."
Quran 21:87

Nun refers to a whale (الحوت, al-hoot), according to Al-Jalalayn. [3].

At-Tabari

The most respected sunni tafsir is probably that of At-Tabari. Unfortunately, it was not translated into English yet. Here is just his interpretation of the Nun in the verse 68:1.

هو الحوت الذي عليه الأرَضُون

It is (هو) a whale (الحوت), which (الذي) on it (عليه) the Earths (الأرَضُون).


At-Tabari tafsir on 68:1 [4]

Tafsir Ibn Kathir

First, we will quote the whole commentary on the verse 68:1 from the English abridged version of the tafsir Ibn Kathir:


Ibn Kathir, English abridged version, on the verse 68:1

There is nothing, because the translators decided not to translate anything he wrote about this verse.

In the Arabic original, Ibn Kathir writes a lot about this verse.

This is the definition of ن (Nun) in the tafsir:

نۤ حوت عظيم
  • نۤ - noon - Nun
  • حوت - hoot - whale
  • عظيم - 'azeem - big

Nun is a big whale.


Ibn Kathir tafsir on 68:1 [5]

Ibn Abbas, the turjuman al-Qur'an

Ibn Abbas gives us some details about how the whale was created:

ابن عباس قال: أول ما خلق الله القلم قال: اكتب، قال: وماذا أكتب؟ قال: اكتب القدر، فجرى بما يكون من ذلك اليوم إلى قيام الساعة، ثم خلق النون، ورفع بخار الماء، ففتقت منه السماء، وبسطت الأرض على ظهر النون، فاضطرب النون، فمادت الأرض، فأثبتت بالجبال؛

Ibn Abbas (ابن عباس) said: The first thing Allah created (خلق) was the pen (القلم). He ordered it to write. It said: What shall I write? He said: Write the fate (القدر). So it wrote what will happen from that day (اليوم) until the Day of judgement, then he created the Nun (النون, al-noon), then he raised the water and created the heavens with it and laid the earth (الأرض) on (على) the back (ظهر) of the Nun, the Nun moved and so did the earth, so it was fixed down with mountains (بالجبال).


Ibn Kathir tafsir on 68:1 [6]

The hadith (narration) by Ibn Abbas (collected by At-Tabari) is considered صحيح (sahih)[7], that means authentic. All Muslims should believe in sahih hadiths. And they should especially believe in hadiths where Ibn Abbas explains Qur'anic verses, because Muhammad (pbuh) made du'a for Ibn Abbas, so that Allah teaches him the interpretation of the Qur'an. Ibn Abbas was also called turjuman ul-Qur'an, because he had deep knowledge about the interpretation (tarjama) of the revelations.

Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas (raa): The Prophet (saws) embraced me and said, “O Allah! Teach him (the knowledge of) the Book (Quran).”
Sahih Bukhari 9:92:375

His narration also explains why mountains are described as pegs in the Qur'an. It is because otherwise the earth would move on the back of the whale:

78:6 Have We not made the earth an even expanse?
78:7 And the mountains as pegs?


Quran 78:6-7


It also explains why Allah's throne is "on water" (because Allah created the heavens out of water):

And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days - and His Throne had been upon water
Quran 11:7

Al-Kafi (Shia hadith)

We can also read about the Islamic whale from the Shia hadiths. This narration explains the connection between the whale and earthquakes:

H 14813 – From him, from Salih, from one of his companions, from Abdul Samad Bin Basheer, who has reported the following: Abu Abdullah (asws) has said that: ‘The whale which is carrying the earth secretly said to itself that it is carrying the earth by its own strength. So Allah (azwj) the High Sent to it a fish smaller than a palm’s length, and larger than a finger. So it entered in its gills and shocked it. It remained like that for forty days. Then Allah (azwj) Raised it and was Merciful to it, and Took it out. So whenever Allah (azwj) Intends the earth to be in a quake, He (azwj) Sends that (small) fish to that (big) fish. So when it sees it, it becomes restless, so the earth gets engulfed by the earthquake’.
Al-Kafi, vol. 8, part 6 [8]
  1. ↑ Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs: "And from his narration on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas that he said regarding the interpretation of Allah's saying (Nun): '(Nun) He says: Allah swears by the Nun, which is the whale that carries the earths on its back while in Water, and beneath which is the Bull and under the Bull is the Rock and under the Rock is the Dust and none knows what is under the Dust save Allah. The name of the whale is Liwash, and it is said its name is Lutiaya'; the name of the bull is Bahamut, and some say its name is Talhut or Liyona. The whale is in a sea called 'Adwad, and it is like a small bull in a huge sea. The sea is in a hollowed rock whereby there is 4,000 cracks, and from each crack water springs out to the earth. It is also said that Nun is one of the names of the Lord; it stands for the letter Nun in Allah's name al-Rahman (the Beneficent); and it is also said that a Nun is an inkwell. (By the pen) Allah swore by the pen. This pen is made of light and its height is equal to the distance between Heaven and earth. It is with this pen that the Wise Remembrance, i.e. the Guarded Tablet, was written. It is also said that the pen is one of the angels by whom Allah has sworn, (and that which they write (therewith)) and Allah also swore by what the angels write down of the works of the children of Adam" http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=73&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2
  2. ↑ http://biblehub.com/library/marshall/the_wonder_book_of_bible_stories/the_story_of_jonah_and.htm
  3. ↑ Al-Jalalayn on 21:87
    • ذَا ٱلنُّونِ } صاحب الحوت}
    • {Man of the fish} companion of the whale (الحوت, al-hoot)
    http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=8&tSoraNo=21&tAyahNo=87&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1
  4. ↑ http://altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1
  5. ↑ altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1
  6. ↑ altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=68&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1
  7. ↑ http://hdith.com/?s=%D8%AB%D9%85+%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%82+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86+%D9%81%D9%88%D9%82+%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%8C+%D8%AB%D9%85+%D9%83%D8%A8%D8%B3+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B1%D8%B6+%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%87
  8. ↑ Page 45. https://shiapdfresources.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/alkafi_vol8_part-6.pdf
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