What we have here is a summarized version of Lot’s history and the decision taken by his people to drive him out of their town because he denounced their perverted sexual practices. By so indulging unashamedly in homosexuality, they perverted human nature which God had installed in all human beings, and indeed in living species generally.

This was a strange phenomenon in the history of human communities. Perversion can occur with individuals, as a result of psychological disorders or temporary circumstances, leading men to have sex with other men. This happens mostly in army barracks where women are not allowed, or in prisons where inmates are held for long periods of time, having to cope with sexual desires without contact with women. But for such practices to be widespread, becoming the norm in a whole town, and despite the presence of women and marriage possibilities, it is most peculiar indeed.

God has made human nature such that the two sexes are attracted to each other, because life in general is based on marriage. He says in the Qur’ān: “Limitless in His glory is He who has created all the pairs out of whatever the earth produces, and out of people’s own selves, and out of that which they have no knowledge.” (36: 36) Thus all living species, plant, animal, human and other creatures unknown to man, are created in pairs. Such duality seems fundamental in the make up of the entire universe, let alone living species. The atom itself, which until now seems to be the basic unit of all creatures, has protons and electrons, which are positive and negative charges.

The reality is that the survival of all living things is based on the mating between two opposites. Even species that do not have males and females combine their male and female cells in the same unit, reproducing by a function that brings both together.

Since mating is basic for reproduction, God has made mutual attraction between the opposite sexes part of the essence of nature, which needs no acquisition or development through education or thought: it is pure instinct. This ensures that life continues naturally, because those who are alive find their pleasure in the fulfilment of their nature. Thus the divine will accomplishes its design through the natural satisfaction of creatures’ instinctive desires. God made male and female genitals, and instilled mutual attraction between the two sexes, so that they find their natural pleasure in being together. He made no such possibility in two males coming together. Hence it is most odd that the natural inclinations of a whole community should become so perverted and without any compelling need pushing people to do what is contrary to their natural inclinations, as was the case with Lot’s people.

Lot publicly denounced his people’s practices stating that these were depraved:

“And Lot said to his people: Would you commit this abomination with your eyes open?

Would you approach men with lust rather than women? You are a grossly ignorant people.” (Verses 54-55)

His first sentence wonders at their abominable practice when they actually saw that life, in all shapes, forms and species, follows its natural course, while they were the ones behaving oddly. In his second sentence he makes clear what type of abomination they practised. It is enough to state what they did so as to highlight its perversion and conflict with nature. Lot then describes them as grossly ignorant, using the word in both its senses: lacking knowledge and being foolish. A person who does not know what human nature is like is devoid of all knowledge, and one who deliberately departs from human nature is a stupid fool who transgresses against all that is right.

What was Lot’s people’s reply to his denunciation of their wrongdoing and his urging them to revert to natural practices? In a nutshell, they planned to drive him, and those who followed him, away, for no reason other than that they maintained their purity: “His people’s only answer was: ‘Expel Lot’s people from your city! They are folk who keep themselves pure.” (Verse 56)

Their statement ridiculed anyone who sought to keep himself pure of such abominable practice. It also objected to his disapproval of their practice. They were so deep in their deviation that they could not realize how filthy their practice was.

Their reply also indicated their opposition to the very idea of keeping themselves pure, because that would make them refrain from such perversion. Whatever they meant, they had nonetheless made up their minds to remove Lot from the picture.

God, however, wanted something different to happen:

So We saved him with his household, except for his wife, whom We destined to be among those who stayed behind. And We rained on the others a rain of destruction.

Dire indeed is such rain which fell on those who were forewarned. (Verses 57-58)

The sūrah does not provide any detail of this destructive rain, as occurs in other sūrahs. Hence, we do not need to discuss it here. We will only mention that they were destroyed with a rain, when rain normally brings life. This fits with the fact that they used semen in a way that is contrary to what it is meant for, which is to ensure the continuity of life and growth. God certainly knows better what He means by His words, and what to accomplish by His natural laws.