Surah Hud, Ayah 74

The Dispute of Ibrahim over the People of Lut

Allah, the Exalted, informs of what happened after the fright of Ibrahim left him and he felt no more fear of the angels when they refused to eat. After this, they gave him the glad tidings of the birth of a son and the destruction of the people of Lut. When they told him of this, he spoke to them as Sa`id bin Jubayr narrated concerning this verse. Sa`id said: When Jibril and the other angels who were with him came to Ibrahim, they said,

إِنَّا مُهْلِكُو أَهْلِ هَـذِهِ الْقَرْيَةِ

(Verily, we are going to destroy the people of this town.) Ibrahim said to them, "Will you destroy a town that has three hundred believers in it" They said, "No." He then said, "Will you destroy a town that has two hundred believers in it" They said, "No." He said, "Will you destroy a town that has forty believers in it" They said, "No." He then said, "Thirty" They still replied, "No." This continued until he said, "Five" They said, "No." Then he said, "What do you think if there is one Muslim man in the town, would you destroy it" They said, "No." With this, Ibrahim said,

إِنَّ فِيهَا لُوطاً قَالُواْ نَحْنُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن فِيهَا لَنُنَجِّيَنَّهُ وَأَهْلَهُ إِلاَّ امْرَأَتَهُ

(But there is Lut in it. They said: "We know better who is there. We will verily, save him and his family except his wife.") Therefore, Ibrahim remained silent and his soul was at rest. Concerning Allah's statement,

إِنَّ إِبْرَهِيمَ لَحَلِيمٌ أَوَّاهٌ مُّنِيبٌ

(Verily, Ibrahim was, without doubt, forbearing, used to invoke Alllah with humility, and was repentant (to Allah).) 11:75 This is a commendation for Ibrahim because of these beautiful characteristics. Then Allah says,

يإِبْرَهِيمُ أَعْرِضْ عَنْ هَـذَآ إِنَّهُ قَدْ جَآءَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَ

(O Ibrahim! Forsake this. Indeed, the commandment of your Lord has gone forth.) This means the decree was settled concerning them and the Word was already given that they should be destroyed. The evil torment was coming to them, that cannot be averted from wicked people.

Commentary

Surah Hud (علیہ السلام) carries an account of different kinds of Divine punishments sent over past peoples because of their antagonism to prophets of the time. Described in the verses cited above is the moral condition of the people of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) and the severe punishment given to them.

Besides being disbelievers, the people of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) were involved in the practice of such abject evil and immodesty as was not found in the world before them, something even wild animals hate. That a man would pollute his honor and dignity with another man is a curse the fallout from which is far more injurious than common forni-cation. Therefore, the harsh punishment that descended on these people had never hit known practitioners of common acts of immodesty.

The event relating to Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) as it appears in the cited verses tells that Allah Ta` ala sent some angels, including Sayyidna Jibra'il علیہ السلام to execute the punishment against these people. They first went to Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) in Palestine, the account of which has appeared in previous verses. After that, they came to Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) whose abode was located at a distance of ten or twelve miles from there.

Certainly great is the majesty of Allah Ta'ala. When He seizes a people in punishment, the punishment that he makes descend upon them is chosen to be congruous to their misdeed. On this occasion too, these angels of Allah were sent in the form of handsome young men. When they reached the home of Sayyidna Lut he too took them to be visiting guests for they had come in human form. He found himself in a fix. If he backed out from entertaining guests, it would be against his dignity as a prophet. If he took them in as his guests, then, he knew how evil and dirty his people were. The danger was that they might storm his home and hurt the guests while he failed to defend them. So, in his heart, he said, ` this is a very hard day.'

Allah Ta` ala has, in His great design, made this world of ours an open gallery of lessons full of the countless exhibits of His perfect power and eloquent wisdom. He made His friend Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) come out as a prophet from the home of Azar, the idol-worshipper. In the home of the highly revered prophet, Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) there was that wife of his who worked in league with disbelievers and opposed her prophet husband. When these honored guests in the form of handsome young men came to stay at the home of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) his wife passed on the information to perverted hoods from these people telling them about the kind of guests they had in their home on that day. (Qurtubi, Mazhari)

Once when Abraham was about a hundred years old, several very handsome young men entered his house. Considering them as guests, he immediately arranged for their food. They were not human beings, but angels of God. They had come with the dual purpose of giving the good news of children to Abraham, and destroying Lot’s community, who had gone to the furthest extremes in their arrogance and rejection of the Truth. Conveying to Abraham and his wife the good news of Isaac (Ishaq), a son, and Jacob (Ya‘qub), a grandson, did not simply mean giving the good news of children in the usual sense. No, indeed, this amounted to the bringing into existence of a line of righteous and mission-oriented human beings. It is a matter of historical record that generally it is a ‘family’ that rises in the service of religion. The history of the prophets and the events in the lives of the true followers who came after them demonstrate this fact. This is because one to whom Truth is revealed is an ordinary person in the eyes of his contemporaries, and this makes it difficult for the common people to recognise his status and support him. But from within his own family, personal relationships become an additional force. What outsiders are unable to see—due to their love of externals—the family members clearly appreciate, thanks to the element of attachment. Not finding it difficult to understand his real position, they become supporters of his mission.