And [mention] the man of the fish, 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."
So We responded to him and saved him from the distress. And thus do We save the believers.

(21:87-88)

How many of us are surrounded in darkness? Darknesses of grief and sorrow? Because of this some of us resort to other means of comfort that is not allowed, and as a result we justify the sins we do.

Yunus (alai) on the other hand also did a mistake, when he left his people before he was permitted. After that it was one trial upon another. He was in layers of darkness; he was in the belly of a whale, and whales dive very deep into the ocean- so the deeper it goes, the darker it gets. It doesn't end there either, what could be even more scary is that it was at night.

He found himself in a situation where there could have been no hope. He was all alone in that ocean. It's so beautiful in this first verse; he admitted his mistake and blamed himself, not the people.

Allah loves it when you talk to him about how helpless you are, that you can do nothing without Him, He loves it when you praise Him as He deserves to be praised, and in response to your call; He helps you come out of that difficulty.

There is another great lesson for us as well; when we do something wrong, we shouldn't justify it. The first step is to simply acknowledge our mistake. Keeping that in front of us, we should make dua for repentance and sincerely mean it from the bottom of our heart.

When there seems to be no hope, think. Whom do you have by your side? You have Allah! The Lord of the Heavens and the Earth. He's just a dua away; don't let your regret of sin make you turn away from him- that's what Shaitân wants. Struggle against that and break through Shaitân's deceptions. Have faith in Allah's mercy and rely upon Him alone.

Allah didn't restrict his saving to just the 'prophets' or just the 'righteous' - he said that he saves the believers; so don't underestimate the power of your dua saying
'I sinned, Allah won't help me,'

Rather; seek forgiveness, make dua and increase in doing good deeds:)