قَالُوا۟ لَئِن لَّمْ تَنتَهِ يَٰلُوطُ لَتَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْمُخْرَجِينَ · قَالَ إِنِّى لِعَمَلِكُم مِّنَ ٱلْقَالِينَ · رَبِّ نَجِّنِى وَأَهْلِى مِمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ · فَنَجَّيْنَٰهُ وَأَهْلَهُۥٓ أَجْمَعِينَ · إِلَّا عَجُوزًا فِى ٱلْغَٰبِرِينَ · ثُمَّ دَمَّرْنَا ٱلْءَاخَرِينَ · وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهِم مَّطَرًا ۖ فَسَآءَ مَطَرُ ٱلْمُنذَرِينَ · إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَةً ۖ وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ · وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
Qālū la-in lam tantahi yā Lūṭu la-takūnanna mina'l-mukhrajīn · Qāla innī li-ʿamalikum mina'l-qālīn · Rabbi najjinī wa ahlī mimmā yaʿmalūn · Fa-najjaynāhu wa ahlahu ajmaʿīn · Illā ʿajūzan fi'l-ghābirīn · Thumma dammarna'l-ākharīn · Wa amṭarnā ʿalayhim maṭarā; fa-sāʾa maṭaru'l-mundharīn · Inna fī dhālika la-āyatan wa mā kāna aktharuhum muʾminīn · Wa inna rabbaka la-huwa'l-ʿazīzu'r-raḥīm
"They said: 'Lot! If you do not stop, you will surely be among those driven out!' · He said: 'I am one of those who detest what you do. · My Lord! Save me and my household from what they do.' · So We saved him and all his household — · save an old woman among those who stayed behind. · Then We razed the others · and rained upon them a rain. How evil is the rain of those who were warned!' · In this there is surely a sign; but most of them were not believers. · And your Lord — He indeed — is the Mighty, the Merciful."
The sentence has exactly the same structure as the hundred and sixteenth verse, with one word of difference. This was tabulated in the section on 26/116-122; I do not repeat it.
What is to be added here is a note on the difference: Noah is threatened with stoning (marjūmīn), Lot with expulsion (mukhrajīn).
| Verse | Expression | Who drives out / is driven out |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Yurīdu an yukhrijakum min arḍikum | Pharaoh's claim |
| 57 | Fa-akhrajnāhum min jannātin wa ʿuyūn | God — the people of Pharaoh |
| 167 | La-takūnanna mina'l-mukhrajīn | The people of Lot — a threat |
The same root (خ-ر-ج), three different scenes. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text. And in all three "driving from the land" is used as a display of power.
The root ق-ل-ي: to dislike intensely, to loathe, to detest. The lexicographers record that the word is the exact opposite of love, and note that another sense of the verb qalā is to roast (maqlī — roasted); they make the link between the two senses with the picture of "burning inside".
In this pattern the word occurs only here in the Qurʾān. Another derivative of the root occurs at al-Ḍuḥā 93/3: mā waddaʿaka rabbuka wa mā qalā — "your Lord has neither forsaken you nor turned against you" (treated in al-Ḍuḥā).
The object of the loathing is not the persons but the deed. The verse does not say innī lakum mina'l-qālīn ("I am one of those who detest you").
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the preposition (li-ʿamalikum): the distinction is plain in the sentence — the act is separated from the actor. And this is the textual counterpart of the principle recorded in Method: the judgement is built not on the persons themselves but on the act described.
And the next verse continues the same distinction: najjinī wa ahlī mimmā yaʿmalūn — "save me from what they do", not "from them".
In both verses the same root (ع-م-ل) and the same distinction. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
عَجُوز — an old woman. The Qurʾān gives no name here; that it is Lot's wife is understood from other places in the Qurʾān (Hūd 11/81; al-Taḥrīm 66/10 — treated in al-Taḥrīm).
The root غ-ب-ر: to remain behind, to be left over. Ghābir — one who stays behind, who remains after those who have gone. The word is repeated several times in the Qurʾān for this event (al-Aʿrāf 7/83; al-Ḥijr 15/60; al-Naml 27/57).
And the principle recorded in al-Taḥrīm attaches here: there, with the wives of Noah and of Lot given as examples, it was treated that closeness does not save. I rely on the note there.
And a point of word order: the exception comes immediately after the sentence of deliverance and limits the word ajmaʿīn ("all"). "All" is said, and then one person is taken out.
The root د-م-ر: to destroy, to raze. Form II (dammara) intensifies. And at al-Ṣāffāt 37/136 the same verb occurs of the same people: thumma dammarna'l-ākharīn — exactly the same sentence.
This is an overlap that can be verified from the text, and it binds the Lot sections of the two sūras together. As was recorded in al-Ṣāffāt, the Lot section there did not receive the closing seal; in al-Shuʿarāʾ it does.
The verb is reinforced with a verbal noun from its own root. And in Arabic this construction qualifies when it takes an adjective; here the qualification comes in the following clause: fa-sāʾa maṭaru'l-mundharīn — "how evil is the rain of those who were warned."
And what it was that rained is not said. The Qurʾān specifies it elsewhere (ḥijāratan min sijjīl — Hūd 11/82; al-Ḥijr 15/74). Al-Shuʿarāʾ does not specify. This is a difference that can be verified from the text.
ٱلْمُنذَرِين — a passive participle: those who have been warned. The sentence thus records with a word that the punishment did not come without warning. And this will tie to the two hundred and eighth verse of the sūra: wa mā ahlaknā min qaryatin illā lahā mundhirūn.
This is an overlap that can be verified from the text: here those warned (passive), there those who warn (active) — the same root.
The seventh seal of the sūra. The mould was treated at 26/8-9.