Prior to anything, we must first establish whether the narration is authentic, as far as the text and the chain as well.
If we were to assume it's all good as far as its issuance from a Ma'sum (a.s.), then we most certainly cannot take it in its literal meaning, and it must be interpreted in such a way that would make sense. Whale could refer to the orbit, maybe because the whale's back is not flat, and for the earth, it has "the equatorial bulge", the water could refer o space, rock could refer to planets, and so on.
Some of these explanations have been given in commentaries on al-Kafi.
The Imam (a.s.) is duty-bound to say things that are not above or beyond people's comprehension at that time. There could be words omitted for brevity, like how the Quran addresses people and certain things.
The following is a good detailed answer (in Arabic) from the holy Shrine of Imam Husain (a.s.):
Quranic verses in Sura Yousuf are the strongest evidence in this matter.
Prophet Yousuf told his brothers: Take this shirt of mine and cast it on the face of my father, he will turn clear-sighted. (12:93).
'We have many authentic narrations on the blessings which can be obtained by touching (Masah) of blessed items like Black stone, Zareeh of most humble servants of Allah, Quranic text, etc.
The four main Shia books of Hadeeth are Al-Kafi, Al-Faqeeh, Al-Istibsar and Al-Tahtheeb. All of them are published separately and there is a new edition having all these four books in one set of volumes. Most of the narrations in these books are authentic and the number of Hadeeths in these books is much more than the number of the narrations in all the six Sunni books of Hadeeth ( Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmithi, Ibn Maajah, Abi Dawood, and Nasaa'ee.).
Every Shia scholar studies every Hadeeth and researches the chain of narrators and the meanings of the text as he understands and comes out with his own result about the authenticity and the meaning of it. No one can force his opinion on other scholars as scientific research is free in Shia Islam for every qualified scholar. That is why, we do not believe in closing the gate of Ijtihad and research in every narration.
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