Al-A'raf 7:80–84

Commentary

Out of the continuing series of stories relating to prophets (علیہم السلام) and their communities, the fourth story is that of Sayyidna Lut (Lot) tX..JI ...lc.

Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) is a nephew of Sayyidna Ibrahim Khalilullah (علیہ السلام) the patriarch of prophets. The original homeland of both was known as Babel near Basrah in western Iraq. Idol-worship was common. Even the family of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) was involved in it. Allah Ta` ala sent Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) as a prophet for their guidance. His people opposed him which culminated in the well known Fire of Nimrud. Even his father threatened to turn him out of his home.

Out of his entire family, only his wife, Sayyidah Sarah and nephew, Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) embraced Islam: فَآمَنَ لَهُ لُوطٌ (Then, Lut believed in him - 29:26). Finally, it was with these two that he immigrated to Syria leaving his home country behind. After reaching Jordon river, he settled in Can'-an near Bayt al-Maqdis under a Divine command.

Then, Allah Ta` ala made Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) too a prophet and sent him to Sadum (Sodom) near Bayt al-Maqdis for the guidance of people there. This area comprised of five major cities. They were called Sadum, ` Amurah, Admah, Sububim and Bali` or Sawghar. The Qur'an has referred to their nucleus as ` Mu'tafikah' and ` Mu'tafikat' at several places. Sadum was considered as the center and capital of these cities. It was here that Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) stayed. The land was fertile and verdant abounding in all kinds of grains and fruits. (These details appear in Al-Bahr Al-Muhit, Mazhari, Ibn Kathir, AI-Manar etc.)

Man's habit, as Allah Ta` ala says in the Qur'an, is: كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَيَطْغَىٰ ﴿6﴾ أَن رَّ‌آهُ اسْتَغْنَىٰ ﴿7﴾ that is, when he acquires freedom from need, he starts transgressing the limits - 96:6-7. On these people too, Allah Ta` ala had opened the doors of His blessings. Goaded by this common behaviour pattern, all soaked in wealth and possessions, they reached the farthest ends of luxury and lust when they stood deprived of the most essential human sense of honour, dignity and modesty, and lost in that process, the very ability to distinguish between the good and the bad. In consequence, they got themselves involved in acts of unnatural indecencies. These are abominal acts, apart from being Haram and sinful, acts which cause hatred and distaste in the heart and mind of everyone born with sound and decent taste, so much so, that even animals would not go near it.

Allah Ta` ala appointed Sayyidna Lit (علیہ السلام) for their guidance. He addressed his people and said: أَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِّنَ الْعَالَمِينَ (Do you commit the shameful act in which nobody has ever preceded you from all the worlds?).

When referring to Zina (adultery), the Qur'an has said: إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً (Surely, it is a shameful act - 17:32). Here, the word: فَاحِشَةً (fahishah: shameful act) has been mentioned without 'Alif Lam while in the present verse, by saying: اَلفَاحِشَةً (al-fahishah: the shameful act), it has been made definite by the addition of 'Alif Lam. Thus, the hint given is that this unnatural evil act is, as if, the combination of all indecencies, and far grave a crime as compared to Zina.

Then, it was said that this shameful act has never been committed by anyone in all the worlds before they did it. ` Amru ibn Dinar has said: The act was unknown in the world before these people. (Mazhari) Neither had the worst of human being had ever thought on those lines before the people of Sadum. The Umayyad Khalifah, ` Abd al-Malik said: Had this event relating to the people of Lut (علیہ السلام) not been mentioned in the Qur'an, I would have never suspected that a human being could do something like that. (Ibn Kathir)

Here, their immodesty has been censured on two grounds: (1)-It so happens that men would get involved in many sins because of their social conditions, or because of a blind following of their ancestors - though, that too, is not a valid legal excuse in the Shar'iah of Islam. But, as a matter of customary practice, such a person could be taken as excusable in some or the other degree. But, when it comes to a sin which has never been committed by anyone before, nor does it have any particular compulsions of its own, it becomes a curse of the highest degree. (2)-The other ground is that this act becomes a channel of making others equally accursed. Think of a person who invents some evil act or custom. As obvious, the sin and punishment of his evil act falls on that person anyway, but, along with him, affected are all who sink in sin led by the act of the originator right through the Last Day, for the curse and punishment of all those so affected also sits on the shoulders of the originator of the evil.

In the second verse (81), this immodesty has been stated more explicitly - ` Surely, you come to men lustfully instead of women.' Here, the hint given is that, for the natural satisfaction of human desire, Allah 'Ta` ala has appointed marrying women as a lawful method. Now, to by-pass it and opt for an unnatural method is bland ugliness of the human self and certainly the proof of a dirty mind.

Therefore, the Sahabah, the Tabi` in and Mujtahid Imams have declared this crime and sin to be far more grave than other acts of shame. Imam Abu Hanifah (رح) has said: The punishment given to the person who commits this act should match the punishment which came upon the people of Lut (علیہ السلام) by the command of Allah Ta` ala - that rocks rained from the skies and the floor of the earth flipped upside down. Therefore, this person should be pushed down from a high mountain and rocks should be thrown from above on top of him. According to a narration of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ in the Musnad of Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said about the people who commit this evil act: فاقتلوا الفاعل والمفعول بہ that is, the doer of this evil deed and his passive partner (al-mafulu bihi: with whom it was done) should both be killed. (Ibn Kathir)

At the end of the verse (81), it was said: بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِ‌فُونَ (No, you are a people who cross the limits). In other words, their real disease was that they would go beyond the limits set by Allah for everything - in their case, it would be the very limit of humanity they would be hopping over. The same thing happened about sexual desire when they crossed the limits appointed by Allah only to reach for a taste of the counter-natural.

In the third verse (82) Lut (علیہ السلام) in response to his word of advice has been put in a way that it shows that his people could not find a suitable rejoinder to what he had said. But, they were still adamant and started saying among themselves that these people seem to be self-righteous claiming a lot of purity for themselves. The treatment they deserved was that they should be thrown out of their town.

Mentioned in the fourth (83) and the fifth (84) verses is the Divine punishment given to the people of Sadum for their crooked and immodest practice. As a consequence, the punishment of Allah Ta` ala descended on the entire people with the exception of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) and some of his companions who remained safe from the punishment. The words of the Qur'an say: فَأَنجَيْنَاهُ وَأَهْلَهُ (We saved him and his ` ahl' ). Who were these ` ahl?' Some commentators say that included in ` ahl' were two women who had become Muslims. The wife was not. Mentioned in another verse of the Qur'an is: فَمَا وَجَدْنَا فِيهَا غَيْرَ‌ بَيْتٍ مِّنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ ﴿36﴾ that is, in all those habitations, there was no Muslim home except one - 51:36. This obviously shows that only people from the household of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) were the ones who were saved from the punishment - and that did not include his wife. Some other commentators say that ahl' is general. It refers to his own family as well as others who had joined him by embracing Islam. To sum up, it can be said that they were a counted few Muslims to save whom Allah Ta` ala ordered Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) to take, except his wife, with him and get out of that habitation late in the night and be sure not to look back, because when they are out of the habitation, the punishment would instantly descend on those in it.

Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) followed the Divine command. He went out of the limits of Sadum with his family and companions late in the night. There are two reports about the wife: (1)-She just did not go with them; (2)-That she did start off with them and walked on for a while, but since she was eager to see the fate of the people she had left behind, quite contrary to the initial Divine command, she was seized by the punishment. This event has been mentioned in the Qur'an at several occasions in varying details. Here, in the fourth verse (83), it has been briefly said that Allah Ta` ala saved Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) and his family and companions from the punishment, but his wife was left with the rest in it. The additional details of how they were saved and how they were asked to leave the habitation late in night and were not to look back appear in other verses.

In the fifth verse (84), the punishment which came on these people has been described in a few words - that an unusual rain was sent upon them. The details of this punishment appear in Surah Had where it is said:

فَلَمَّا جَاءَ أَمْرُ‌نَا جَعَلْنَا عَالِيَهَا سَافِلَهَا وَأَمْطَرْ‌نَا عَلَيْهَا حِجَارَ‌ةً مِّن سِجِّيلٍ مَّنضُودٍ ﴿82﴾ مُّسَوَّمَةً عِندَ رَ‌بِّكَ ۖ وَمَا هِيَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ بِبَعِيدٍ ﴿83﴾

(So, when Our command-came, We turned its highest into its lowest, and We rained on it stones of hard clay, one over an-other marked, with your Lord. And they are not far from the transgressors - 11:82-83).

This tells us that the rain of stones came from above and from down below, angel Jibra'il (علیہ السلام) lifted up the whole crust of the earth and threw it back upside down. Then, the stones which rained down were one over the other, that is, the stone rained so ceaselessly that they kept collecting one on top the next. These stones were marked. Some commentators say that every such stone was marked with the name of the person who was destined to be destroyed with it. And in the verses of Surah Al-Hijr, also mentioned before the account of the punishment is: فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الصَّيْحَةُ مُشْرِ‌قِينَ ﴿73﴾ that is, a Sound seized them at sunrise - 15:73).

This indicates that first to come was some harsh Sound from the skies, then came other punishments. The outward arrangement of the words shows that it was after this Sound that the earth crust was turned upside down and then, stones were rained on them to put a stamp on their disgrace. And it is also possible that the rain of stones came first and the turning over of the earth crust came later. The reason is that, given the style of the Qur'an, it is not necessary that some-thing mentioned earlier should have also occurred earlier.

Out of the horrendous punishments sent on the people of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) ، the punishment of turning the floor of the earth upside down has a particular correspondence with their act of shame and immodesty because they were guilty of perversion.

Towards the end of the verses of Surah Hud cited a little earlier, the Qur'an has warned the people of Arabia when it says: وَمَا هِيَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ بِبَعِيدٍ ﴿83﴾ that is, these upturned habitations were not far from the transgressors. They pass by them while traveling to Syria but it is surprising that they would learn no lesson from them.

And these sights are not restricted with the time the Holy Qur'an was being revealed. They are still there between Bayt al-Maqdis and Jordon river, particularly the area known as the Sea of Lut or the Dead Sea. It lies way deep below the sea level. On a particular section, there is water which is unusual. No sea life survives there. Hence, the name: Dead Sea. This is said to be the legendary Sodom. May Allah keep us safe from His Punishment and Wrath.