بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين و الصلاة و السلام علي رسوله الكريم
Allah Tala mentions in the Quran:
و من آياته أن خلق لكم من أنفسكم أزواجا لتسكنوا إليها و جعل بينكم مودة و رحمة إن في ذلك لأيت لقوم يتفكرون
“Among His signs is that He created spouses for you from yourselves so that you would find peace with them; and He put love and mercy between you. Indeed, in that are signs for those who utilize their intellect.”
A sign of Allah’s perfect power and greatness is that He made human females to be our wives. If He had made all of mankind male and the females came from another species, the harmony, mutual affection, etc., that is between a husband and wife would not exist. Out of His mercy, He gave us spouses from our own species and connected our hearts. This, He mentions, is a sign for those who have intelligence and utilize that intellect to contemplate over the creation so that they can take a lesson and increase their faith. Especially when they think about how Allah created them from a drop, then made them into human beings and gave them spouses that were not Jinns or animals. [1]
From the time of Adam (Alaihis Salaam) this was how things were; men and women would come together. This is how humanity was preserved, and continued to exist in the world. After some time though, Shaytaan, the avowed enemy of mankind, who is always looking for an opportunity to steer the human being towards the fire of Hell and involve them in some act of disobedience against their Creator and Master, taught some people how to do such a disgusting act that the thought of it had never even occurred to any human being before. [2]
Allah Tala sent the nephew of the great Nabi Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) to these people, to invite them to worship Allah alone, obey His messengers, and to stop them from the sinful and despicable act they had started doing. He Tala mentions in the Quran:
و لوط اذ قال لقومه أتأتون الفحشة ما سبقكم بها من أحد من العلمين
“Remember when Lut (Alaihis Salaam) said to his people: Do you commit such an indecent act that no one in the world has ever done it before!?”
Prophet Lut (Alaihis Salaam) rebuked these people by first telling them that they were doing something indecent, and then telling them that no one before them had ever done such a thing. The indecent act that these people were committing was males going by other males to fulfill their desires. This foul act was to be the reason that Allah would destroy them.
Before the people of Lut (Alaihis Salaam), human beings were not familiar with such an act. Even if some heretics would like to claim otherwise, the truth is what the Qur’an has mentioned.
Waleed Ibn Abdul Malik, the Umayyad Khalifah, said: “If Allah had not related to us the news of the people of Lut, I wouldn’t have thought that a man could go by another man.”[3]
إنكم لتأتون الرجال شهوة من دون النساء بل انتم قوم مسرفون
“You all go by men with desire instead of women; rather you are a people who commit excess.”
Instead of fulfilling their desires with the women whom Allah created, they were going to other men. This abominable act had even spread amongst the women, and just like the men were satisfied being with men, the women would also be satisfied going by other women. There was no logical reason for them to be doing this. The real purpose of mubashara is not just fulfilling one’s desires and getting pleasure, but trying to have a child, and the propagation of the Human race. A man having relations with another man gives no other benefit besides the fulfillment of desires, and thus they abandon the natural disposition of Humans to resemble animals who are only occupied with the fulfillment of their desires.[4]
When Lut (Alaihis Salaam) rebuked his people for their disobedience they didn’t listen to him, nor did they obey him. Some of them tried to act as though there was something wrong with the Nabi and his followers because they were not doing what everyone else was doing. Without any pause, or delay they mockingly and sarcastically gave a reply that had nothing to do with what Nabi Lut (Alaihis Salaam) was talking about. “Expel them from your city,” Some of them said to others. “They are people who want to be religious and pure from the adbaar of men and women. They don’t want to do what you are doing.”[5]
They said this, boasting about the filth they were doing, just like some open sinners will say to pious people who try to advise them: “Get this ascetic away from us. Give us relief from this pious person.”[6] In other words, go play pious somewhere else, we don’t want to hear it.
They even went so far as to sarcastically request Lut (Alaihis Salaam) to bring down this painful punishment and great destruction if he was telling the truth.[7]
قالوا ائتنا بعذاب الله إن كنت من الصادقين
“They said: Bring the punishment of Allah if you are amongst the truthful.”
When the Prophet Lut (Alaihis Salaam) lost hope that they would rectify their state he asked Allah for help and requested Him to send down punishment on these corrupt people who had invented this indecent act.
قال رب انصرني علي القوم المفسدين
“He said: O my Lord, assist me against these corrupt people.”
Imam Raazi (Rahmatullahi Alaihi) said, “You should know that the Anbiya (Alaihimus Salaam) do not request the destruction of their people except when they know that the absence of these people is better than their existence.” He gives as example the statement of Nabi Nuh (Alaihis Salaam) who made dua against his people and gave the following reason for their destruction:
إنك إن تذرهم يضلوا عبادك
“If You leave them they will misguide Your slaves.”
If You leave a single one of them alive they will mislead Your slaves and will only give birth to disbelieving sinners. After living with his people for 950 years and seeing how they were, Nuh (Alaihis Salaam) was able to make this statement because he knew their tendencies.
The Mufassireen relate that a man and his son would walk by Nuh (Alaihis Salaam), and the father would say to his child, “My dear son, beware of this one because he’s a liar. My father told me so.” Then the older generation would die out and the younger generation would grow up to be just like them.
In the same way, when Lut (Alaihis Salaam) knew that the state of his people was one of utter corruption, and that there was no hope for their rectification, he requested that the punishment be sent down. This happened after he gave them dawah for around thirty years. The great Nabi of Allah, Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam), even used to come and advise them but they didn’t accept his advice.[8]
In response to this dua, Allah sent angels in the form of handsome young men to Lut (Alaihis Salaam) as a test for his people. When Lut (Alaihis Salaam) first laid eyes on them he wasn’t aware they were angels and he felt very bad. He feared that if he didn’t take them in his people would, and some evil might befall them.[9]
When the disbelieving wife of Lut (Alaihis Salaam) saw how handsome his guests were, she went and told the people, “Lut (Alaihis Salaam) is hosting some young men tonight who are so handsome. They are like this and like that.”[10]
و جاءه قومه يهرعون إليه و من قبل كانوا يعملون السيئات قال يقوم هؤلاء بناتي هن أطهر لكم فاتقوا الله و لا تخزون في ضيفي أليس منكم رجل رشيد
“His people came racing to him, and they used to commit evil deeds from before. He said: O my people, these are my daughters. They are purer for you. Fear Allah. Be conscious of Allah, and do not disgrace me concerning my guests. Is there not a single upright man amongst you?”
It was their habit before these angels came to commit this disgusting act. But when they came racing shamelessly to get at Nabi Lut’s (Alaihis Salaam) guests, he stood up to them and tried to dissuade them from what they intended. From behind his locked door, he instructed them to marry women as this was purer for them. He advised them to have taqwa and not to disgrace him before his guests. He rebuked them with his words, “Is there not a single man amongst you (with goodness in them who would obey me and desist from what I prohibited you from doing)?”
Prophets are like fathers to the people they are sent to. Just like fathers, and parents in general, teach their children how to live properly, prophets teach human beings how to live. They guide mankind to that which is most virtuous and most beneficial, not only in this life, but also in the life to come. Allah relates the response of those people (May Allah curse them) to this upright command, and sincere advice, from their Nabi in the following words:
قالوا لقد علمت ما لنا في بناتك من حق و إنك لتعلم ما نريد
“They said: You know we don’t have any need for your daughters. You know what we want.”
They plainly and openly declared their disgusting intentions. Our aim and objective is only men. We have no inclination towards women, and you know that, so what need is there to keep repeating this statement to us?
قال لو أن لي بكم قوة أو آوي إلي ركن شديد
“He said: If only I had some strength against you or I could take support with some strong pillar.”
When Nabi Lut (Alaihis Salaam) saw that they were persisting in their misguidance and that he didn’t have the power to repel them, he wished if he had some support so he could drive back these corrupt people and come between them and what they wanted to do. At that point, the angels revealed themselves, and informed Lut (Alaihis Salaam) that they were messengers from his Lord who were sent to destroy those people. They instructed him to take his family, with the exception of his wife because she had remained on the religion of her people, and leave during the night, without looking back.[11]
Because the people of Lut (Alaihis Salaam) persisted in their misguidance and rebellious ways, Allah sent down a horrible punishment on them, and made them a lesson and example for the rest of the world. Their city was lifted into the skies on the wings of Jibrail (Alaihis Salaam) until the dwellers of the heavens could hear the sounds of the inhabitants of the city and their animals. Then their city was turned over and slammed back into the ground while a strange type of rain was sent down upon them: hard rocks coming down one after the other, with the names of those they were to strike stamped upon them. [12]
Some may put forth the following two arguments:
1) The People of Lut were only punished because of their disbelief and denial, like all the other nations
2) The old and the young were destroyed so this can not be used as proof that Had will be applied to the one who commits this act
The response to both of these, as mentioned in Tafseer Qurtubi, is that “the first is erroneous, due to the fact that Allah that informs [us] that they were committing sins and that is why He punished them. As for the second argument… Some of them were committing the act, and others were pleased with it, so all of them were punished because majority of them kept silent. This is the wisdom of Allah and His sunnah amongst His slaves.”[13]
و ما هي من الظالمين ببعيد
“And it is not far from the wrongdoers.”
This punishment is not far from those who resemble them in their wrongdoing. Those who resemble a people are from them even if that resemblance is not complete. As the poet said:
فإن لم تكونوا قوم لوط بعينهم
فما قوم لوط منكم ببعيد
You might not be the spitting image of the people of Lut, but you aren’t far from it.[14]
In the Qur’an, Allah asks that the Prophet (sallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) and all of those who are legally bound by the Shariah take a lesson from this event. Look at the end result of these people who belied Allah and His Messenger, who committed sins, engaged in abominable deeds, and considered that which Allah had made Haram (i.e. the backsides of men) as Halal. What happened to them, and what was their outcome?[15]
اللهم ارنا الحق حقا وارزقنا اتباعا و ارنا الباطل باطلا وارزقنا اجتنابا و لا تجعله ملتبسا علينا فنضل و اجعلنا للمتقين اماما
O Allah, show us the truth as truth and bless us to follow it. Show us falsehood as falsehood, bless us to abstain from, and do not make it ambiguous for us so that we go astray. And, O Allah, please makes us leaders of the righteous.[16]
For further reading, please check the tafseer of the following surahs: Surah A’raaf, Surah Hud, Surah Hajr, Surah Shu’araa, Surah Ankabut, Surah An-Aam, Surah Saaffaat, Surah Dhaariyaat, and Surah Qamar.
Sources:
1) Ibn Kathir 6:309, Jalalain Page: 342
2) Qurtubi 7:242&245, Ibn Kathir 2:308, Bahrul Muheet 4:335-336
3) Ibn Kathir 2:308, Tafseer Tabri 10:305, Qurtubi 7:245
4) Tafseer Mulla Ali Qaari 2:152, Bahrul Muheet 4:337, Tafseer Raazi 14:176
5) Bahrul Muheet 4:338
6) Tarikh Tabri 1:245-248
7) Tafseer Mulla Ali Qaari 4:125, Tarikh Tabri 1:248, Safwatut Tafaasir 2:459&3:454-455, Ruhul Maani 8:172
8) Ibn Kathir 4:336
9) Qurtubi 9:74
10) Safwatut Tafseer 2:27, Ibn Kathir 2:308
11) Ibn Kathir 2:597-598, Bidayah Wan Nihayah 2:408-409
12) Qurtubi 7:244
13) Ibn Kathir 2:598, Tarkih Tabri 1:251
14) Tafseer Tabri 10:309-310
15) Tafseer Tabri 10:309-310, Tafseer Raazi 14:179
16) Ibn Kathir 1:339
