Tafsir

The Town of Lut's People is overturned and Their Destruction

Allah, the Exalted, says, فَلَمَّا جَآءَ أَمْرُنَا(So when Our commandment came,) This happened at sunrise. جَعَلْنَا عَـلِيَهَا(We turned it...) The city of Sadum (Sodom) سَافِلَهَا(upside down,) This is similar to Allah's statement, فَغَشَّـهَا مَا غَشَّى (So there covered them that which did cover (torment with stones).)53:54 This means, "We rained upon it with stones made of Sijjil." Sijjil is a Persian word meaning stones made of clay. This definition has been mentioned by Ibn `Abbas and others. Some of the scholars said that it (Sijjil) derived from the word Sang, which means a stone. Some others said it means Wakil, which is clay. In another verse Allah says, حِجَارَةً مِّن طِينٍ(the stones of clay,) This means clay made into strong, hard stone. Some of the scholars said it means baked clay. Al-Bukhari said, "Sijjil means that which is big and strong." Concerning Allah's statement, مَّنْضُودٍ(in an array. ) Some of the scholars said that Mandud means the stones were arranged in the heavens and prepared for that (destruction).

Others said, مَّنْضُودٍ(in an array.) This word means that some of them (the stones) followed others in their descent upon the people of Lut. Concerning the statement, مُّسَوَّمَةً(Marked) meaning the stones were marked and sealed, all of them having the names of their victims written on them. Qatadah and `Ikrimah both said, "Musawwamah means each stone was encompassed by a sprinkling of red coloring." The commentators have mentioned that it (the shower of stones) descended upon the people of the town and upon the various villages around it. One of them would be speaking with some people when a stone would strike him from the sky and kill him while he was among the people. Thus, the stones followed them, striking the people in the entire land until they destroyed them all. Not a single one of them remained. Concerning Allah's statement, وَمَا هِى مِنَ الظَّـلِمِينَ بِبَعِيدٍ(and they are not ever far from the wrongdoers.) This means that this vengeance (of Allah) is not far from similar wrongdoers.

Verily, it has been reported in a Hadith of the Sunan collections, from Ibn `Abbas, which he attributed to the Prophet , «مَنْ وَجَدْتُمُوهُ يَعْمَلُ عَمَلَ قَوْمِ لُوطٍ فَاقْتُلُوا الْفَاعِلَ وَالْمَفْعُولَ بِه»(Whoever you find doing the deed of Lut's people homosexuality, then kill the doer and the one who allows it to be done to him (both partners).)

At that time, the angels under Divine command said to Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) : فَأَسْرِ‌ بِأَهْلِكَ بِقِطْعٍ مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ (So, move with your family in a part of night). And asked him to instruct everyone in his family not to turn and look back with the exception of his wife because she was going to be hit by the same punishment that was to fall on his people.

This could also mean that he was not to take his wife along with him. And it could also mean that, being his wife, she was to go along as part of his family, but she would not obey the instruction of not looking back he would give to his family. According to some reports, this is what happened. This wife started off with others, but when she heard the big bang of the punishment given to her people, she looked back and felt sorry at their destruction. At that moment there came a splintered rock and finished her off like others. (Qurtubi, Mazhari)The angels had also told Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) that: إِنَّ مَوْعِدَهُمُ الصُّبْحُ (The deadline [ of the punishment ] is the morning). He said that he wished the punishment would come sooner. Thereupon, the angels said: أَلَيْسَ الصُّبْحُ بِقَرِ‌يبٍ (Is it not that the morning is near?)After that, the Qur'an portrays the occurrence of the punishment by saying: So, when Our command came, We turned whatever there was in their habitat upside down raining such stones over it as had the names of everyone there marked on it.

Reports say that these habitations were composed of four major towns where those people lived. These very habitations have been named as 'al-mu'tafikat' (the towns overturned) elsewhere in the Holy Qur'an (9:70, 69:9). When the Divine command came, the archangel Jibra'il al-Amin dissected the base of the land mass holding all those towns on top of it with his wing, raised all of it upwards in a way that everything stayed where it was, even water in a water vessel. It was in the backdrop of human, animal and canine voices coming from the sky that he heaved all these habitations straight up towards the sky and, then, threw the whole thing back upside down - as appropriate to and as called for by the evil they indulged in.

فلما جاء أمرنا بنزول العذاب بهم جعلنا عالي قريتهم التي كانوا يعيشون فيها سافلها فقلبناها، وأمطرنا عليهم حجارة من طين متصلِّب متين، قد صُفَّ بعضها إلى بعض متتابعة، معلَّمة عند الله بعلامة معروفة لا تشاكِل حجارة الأرض، وما هذه الحجارة التي أمطرها الله على قوم لوط من كفار قريش ببعيد أن يُمْطَروا بمثلها. وفي هذا تهديد لكل عاص متمرِّد على الله.

يقول تعالى : ( فلما جاء أمرنا ) وكان ذلك عند طلوع الشمس ، ( جعلنا عاليها ) وهي [ قريتهم العظيمة وهي ] سدوم [ ومعاملتها ] ( سافلها ) كقوله ) [ والمؤتفكة أهوى ] فغشاها ما غشى ) [ النجم : 53 ، 54 ] أي : أمطرنا عليها حجارة من " سجيل " وهي بالفارسية : حجارة من طين ، قاله ابن عباس وغيره .وقال بعضهم : أي من " سنك " وهو الحجر ، و " كل " وهو الطين ، وقد قال في الآية الأخرى : ( حجارة من طين ) [ الذاريات : 33 ] أي : مستحجرة قوية شديدة . وقال بعضهم : مشوية ، [ وقال بعضهم : مطبوخة قوية صلبة ] وقال البخاري . " سجيل " : الشديد الكبير . سجيل وسجين واحد ، اللام والنون أختان ، وقال تميم بن مقبل :ورجلة يضربون البيض ضاحية ضربا تواصت به الأبطال سجيناوقوله : ( منضود ) قال بعضهم : منضودة في السماء ، أي : معدة لذلك .وقال آخرون : ( منضود ) أي : يتبع بعضها بعضا في نزولها عليهم .