In the Shade of the Qur'an by Sayyid Qutb

This sūrah gives a brief history of the people who were left in charge of the earth after Noah’s time. It refers to certain communities which received God’s blessings and to others which incurred His displeasure and deserved His punishment. We now have a reference to a part of Abraham’s story in which we witness God’s blessings. This leads to the story of Lot’s people who suffered a painful end. In both stories the dual promise God made to Noah is fulfilled. God’s promise ran as follows:

“The word was spoken: Noah, disembark in peace from Us, and with Our blessings upon you as well as upon generations from those who are with you. As for other folk, We shall let them have enjoyment, and then there will befall them grievous suffering from Us.’” (Verse 48)

Thus, some of the offspring of those saved in the ark were to receive God’s blessings, while other communities were left to enjoy themselves for a while before terrible punishment overwhelmed them for their misdeeds. The blessings are given to Abraham and his seed through both his sons: Isaac and his children who were the Israelite prophets, and Ishmael whose offspring included Muĥammad, the last of God’s messengers.

The account of Abraham opens here with the fact that he was to receive good news: “Our messengers came to Abraham with good news.” (Verse 69) We are not told immediately what the good news was. This would come at the right moment, when his wife was present. The messengers were angels whose identity is left a mystery.

Although some commentators on the Qur’ān mention names and numbers, we prefer not to speculate, since we have no evidence to support such contentions.

“They bade him peace, and he answered: ‘Peace [be to you].’” (Verse 69) Abraham had emigrated from his birthplace in Iraq, crossed the Jordan and settled in the land of the Canaanites which was largely a desert. Following the Bedouin tradition of hospitality, Abraham immediately went about preparing food for his guests. “He then hastened to bring them a roasted calf” (Verse 69) He gets a fat calf, roasts and prepares it.

He presents it to his guests who, as we have already said, were angels. Angels, however, do not eat what human beings eat. Hence, they could not partake of the calf, and this worried Abraham: “When he saw that their hands did not reach out to it, he felt their conduct strange and became apprehensive of them.” (Verse 70) A guest who does not eat of the food given him causes worry. He makes his host nervous that he intends some kind of treachery. To this day, country people and Bedouins consider it a grave crime to act treacherously towards someone with whom they have shared food. Hence, if they refuse to eat someone’s food, their action suggests that they either intend to do harm or that they do not trust the host’s intentions. Hence, the messengers reveal their identity to Abraham and tell him about their mission: “They said: Do not be alarmed. We are sent to the people of Lot.” (Verse 70)

Abraham realized what sending angels to Lot’s people meant, but then something else happens and the subject is changed: “His wife, standing nearby, laughed.” (Verse 71) She might have been pleased by the imminent destruction of the evil-doers! Then she is given her own news: “whereupon We gave her the happy news of [her giving birth to] Isaac and, after Isaac, Jacob.” (Verse 71) She was an old woman who had never given birth to a child. Hence, the news of giving birth to Isaac was extremely surprising. Yet, it was happy news of double significance because Isaac would have offspring of his own. Jacob would be born to him. Any woman, especially a sterile one, would be overjoyed at such news. But she is also confused and her confusion is evident: “Said she: ‘Woe is me! Shall I bear a child now that I am an old woman, and this my husband is well-advanced in years? This is a strange thing indeed.’” (Verse 72)

It is strange indeed. All women cease to menstruate after a certain age. When this happens, they can no longer conceive. But nothing is strange when God wills it:

“They said: ‘Do you marvel at God’s decree? May God’s mercy and blessings be upon you, people of this house. He is indeed ever to be praised, Glorious.’” (Verse 73)

Nothing that God does should be considered strange. When it is the norm for something to happen in a particular fashion, this does not mean that that fashion is unchangeable. The norm can be broken when God so chooses, for a particular purpose of His own. The purpose here is to bestow His mercy and promised blessings to the believers in that household. Yet, when the norm is broken, whatever takes place as a result occurs in accordance with the overall divine laws of nature which we do not know in full. We cannot judge God’s laws according to what happens during a short, limited period of time.

Those who try to restrict God’s will to the laws of nature familiar to them are ignorant of the reality of Godhead as stated by God in His book. Whatever God states is true. Our human minds have no say in all this. Even those who restrict God’s will to what He Himself has stated to be His law are again unaware of the true nature of Godhead. God’s will is free and not restricted by His laws.

It is true that God conducts the affairs of this universe according to the laws He has set for it. This is, however, different from restricting God’s will to these natural laws after they have been set in operation. The laws of nature work by God’s will all the time. They are not automatic. At any time, God may choose to cause His natural laws to operate in a different way. Whenever this happens natural laws will change to the new fashion God has determined. The overall law of nature which governs the operation of all other laws is that which states that God’s will is free and absolute.

Every time any particular law operates, it does so according to God’s free and absolute will.

At this point, Abraham was reassured. He was delighted by the good news given him by God’s messengers. This, however, did not make him overlook Lot and his people. Lot was his nephew who had emigrated with him from their birthplace and who lived in the neighbouring area. He realized that the messengers, or the angels were sent to destroy Lot’s people. Compassionate and tender-hearted as Abraham was, he could not bear that the whole community should be so destroyed. He began to plead for them. “When his fear had left Abraham, and he received the happy news, he began to plead with Us for Lot’s people. Abraham was indeed most clement, tender-hearted, and devout.” (Verses 74-75)

Abraham is described in the text as clement, tender-hearted and devout. He did not lose his temper easily, he prayed to God with sincerity, and he always turned to his Lord in repentance. All these qualities prompted Abraham to plead for Lot’s people. We do not know how this pleading was conducted, because the Qur’ān does not elaborate. He was told, however, that God’s judgement had been passed and there was no point in his pleading: “Abraham! Leave off all this [pleading]. Your Lord’s judgement must come to pass. They shall be afflicted by an irrevocable torment.” (Verse 76)

Abraham complied and the curtains dropped in order to be raised again on a scene full of activity at Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s country.

When Our messengers came to Lot he was troubled on their account, for he was powerless to offer them protection. He said: ‘This is a woeful day.’ (Verse 77)

Lot was aware of the perversity of his people, who preferred to satisfy their sexual desires with men instead of women. In so doing they rebelled against nature, which avails itself of God’s wisdom in creating all species in pairs so that procreation and regeneration can take place. Undistorted nature finds true pleasure in conforming to this wisdom, naturally and instinctively.

There are indeed all kinds of perversion. The case of Lot’s people, however, is singular. It suggests that psychological disturbances are infectious, like physical illnesses. It is possible that a psychological disorder such as that of the people of Sodom may spread as a result of a disturbance of values in any particular society and the presence of bad examples which produces an unhealthy environment. It is possible that such a psychological disorder spreads despite the fact that it is in conflict with nature which is subject to the same law that governs life itself. This law determines that upright nature finds its pleasure in what meets the requirements of life and ensures its continuity not in what stifles life. Sexual perversion is of the latter sort because it puts the seeds of life in a wicked soil that is not conducive to their growth. For this reason, healthy human nature instinctively, not only morally, finds the practices of Lot’s people repulsive. Sound human nature is subject to God’s law who grants life and who has made healthy pleasure attendant on what enriches life.

Sometimes, we find pleasure in death for the achievement of a goal which is, to us, more sublime than this life. Such a pleasure, however, is moral, not physical. Besides, such death does not stifle life. On the contrary, it enriches life and elevates it to a sublime standard. There is no comparison between such a pleasure in death and a perversion that stifles life.

Knowing what scandal awaited him in front of his guests, and what ill-treatment awaited these guests from his own people, Lot was troubled on their account and exclaimed, “this is a woeful day.” The woeful day soon started when his people rushed towards him: “His people came running towards him, for they had been long keen on abominable practices.” (Verse 78) They were impelled by their desires, rushing like one who has lost self-control. This was the reason for the distress Lot felt on his guests’ account.

When Lot looked at his people coming hurriedly towards his home, intent on abusing him and his guests, he tried to arouse their upright nature and direct them to the opposite sex with whom healthy nature finds pleasure. He was even ready to give his daughters in marriage to those frenzied people to satisfy their maddening desires in a clean, pure way. “He said: ‘My people! Here are my daughters: they are purer for you. Have fear of God and do not disgrace me by wronging my guests. Is there not one right-minded man among you?’” (Verse 78) All the connotations of purity, psychological and physical, are meant here. Lot’s daughters would provide a proper, sound and natural way for the satisfaction of sexual desire, arousing healthy feelings as well. It is a situation of complete purity, natural as well as moral and religious.

Moreover, they are physically purer. The will of the Creator has provided a clean, pure place for the new emerging life.

Lot also tried to appeal to their fear of God, and their sense of propriety in providing hospitality to one’s guests: “Have fear of God and do not disgrace me by wronging my guests. Is there not any right- minded man among you?” (Verse 78)

The issue then is one of sensibility or the lack of it, in addition to its being an issue of healthy nature, and propriety behaviour. None of this, however, could counteract their perversity and psychopathic minds. Their frenzy continued in full force. Their reply was even more singular: “They answered: ‘You know we have no need of your daughters; and indeed you well know what we want.’” (Verse 79) Here is an implicit reminder to Lot that had they had any desire to marry his daughters, they would have done so, because that was their right, and they had a claim to them. But, instead they said: “Indeed you well know what we want.” A wicked hint to an evil practice! Lot was confounded. He felt his position was very weak, especially since he was a stranger who had settled among these people, having emigrated from a far-away land. He realized that he had no clan or tribe to support him; he had no strength upon which he could fall back on such a difficult day. Sad and distressed, he put all his feelings in words that were full of sorrow: “He said: ‘Would that with you I had real strength, or that I could lean on some mighty support.’” (Verse 80) He addressed this to his guests who were angels in the form of young men. Feeling that they were far from strong, he expressed his seemingly unrealistic wish for support from them or from somewhere else. In his difficulty, Lot overlooked the fact that he could indeed lean on the mighty support of God who does not fail His obedient servants.

When the Prophet recited this verse he said: “May God have mercy on my brother Lot. He had indeed the mighty support he was looking for.” When his distress was at its highest and matters had come to a head, the angels informed Lot of the mighty support he had. They informed him of their identity, so that he might be saved along with the good members of his family, with the exception of his wife who belonged to the evil people: “[The angels] said: ‘Lot, we are messengers from your Lord. They shall not touch you. Depart with your household, during the night, and let none of you look back, except for your wife. She shall suffer the same fate which is to befall them. Their appointed time is the morning. Is not the morning near?’” (Verse 81) We note that the first instruction required that none of the good people who believed in God should delay their departure, or look back because all those who remained in the townships would be destroyed by morning. The rhetorical question about the morning being so near was meant to help Lot relax. Once the morning appeared, God would cause Lot’s people to suffer by His own strength what could never have been achieved by the strength Lot wished he had.

The final scene is one of fearful destruction which Lot’s people deserved. At the appointed time, “when Our Judgement came to pass We turned those [towns] upside down, and rained on them stones of clay, ranged one upon another, marked out as from your Lord.

Nor is such [punishment] far from the wrongdoers.” (Verses 82-83) It is a scene of total destruction, leaving nothing standing. Note here that turning everything in those towns upside down is akin, in effect, to the perversity of Lot’s people which had brought them down from man’s high standard to the abject level of animals. Indeed, they were lower than animals because animals are bound by their nature. They do not distort it. The stones showered on them were a fitting means of punishment, because they were stained with mud. The stones were showered heavily “ranged one upon another. “We also note that these stones were ‘marked out as from your Lord,” the same way as cattle are marked out and left free for breeding. This gives the impression that these stones were left to breed and increase in order to be available at this time of need. It is a fine expression which imparts its own connotations far better than any interpretation could hope to achieve. This is followed by a statement that God’s punishment is always available, at any time it is needed, and it will always overwhelm those who deserve it.

The calamity portrayed here sounds similar to some volcanic eruptions which cause subsidence, so that what has been erected on earth is swallowed up, while all this is accompanied with fire, stones, mud and lava. God has much in store for the evil-doers. We do not say this in order to suggest that Lot’s people were punished by a volcano erupting at that particular time. Nor do we deny it. All we can say is that this might have happened, but we do not know for certain. We do not like to restrict God’s action to any one phenomenon which is familiar to us. But it is probable that God had previously determined to cause a volcanic eruption to bring about the fate of Lot’s people as had been predetermined by His knowledge. Such timing is indeed part of the manifestation of His supremacy in the universe, and His conduct of all its affairs. It is also equally possible that what happened to Lot’s people occurred as a result of special action determined by God in order to destroy Lot’s people in that particular fashion at that particular time. If we understand God’s will as it relates to everything in the universe on the lines we have explained in commenting on the fortunes of Abraham’s wife, we will have no problem in understanding any event which takes place by God’s will.