وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِۦٓ أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلْفَٰحِشَةَ وَأَنتُمْ تُبْصِرُونَ · أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ ٱلرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ ٱلنِّسَآءِ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ
wa Lūṭan idh qāla li-qawmihī a-taʾtūna'l-fāḥishata wa antum tubṣirūn · a-innakum la-taʾtūna'r-rijāla shahwatan min dūni'n-nisāʾ, bal antum qawmun tajhalūn
"And Lot too We sent. He had said to his people: 'Do you commit that indecency with your eyes open? Do you approach men in desire instead of women? Truly you are a people who act in ignorance.'"
And this connects directly with the sūra's spine of knowledge. The expression at verse 14 should be recalled:
| Verse | Expression | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 13-14 | āyātunā mubṣiratan … wa'stayqanathā anfusuhum | The people of Pharaoh — denial though they saw what makes one see |
| 54 | wa antum tubṣirūn | The people of Lot — doing it though they see |
The same root (ب-ص-ر), in two different blocks, doing the same work: the recording of acting knowingly. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the structure the two verses share: the sūra ties neither the denial nor the deed to ignorance. And this is decisive for reading the word tajhalūn in the next sentence.
| Reading | What wa antum tubṣirūn means |
|---|---|
| 1 | Knowingly — while you see how foul it is |
| 2 | Openly — before one another's eyes, without concealment |
Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. I record one indication: in the telling of the same narrative in al-ʿAnkabūt the phrase wa taʾtūna fī nādīkumu'l-munkar occurs (29/29 — you commit that wrong in your assemblies); this is an indication in support of the second reading.
The root ف-ح-ش was treated in al-Najm at 53/32: fuḥsh — an ugliness that passes all bounds, excess. Fāḥisha, plural fawāḥish — an act whose foulness is plain. I do not repeat it here.
And that the word comes definite must be recorded: al-fāḥisha. Not "an indecency" but "that indecency" — an act the ones addressed know and can name.
And indeed it is described in the next verse. That the Qurʾān names this people's act in several sūras was recorded in the discussion of al-Qamar at 54/33-39, and a distinction was drawn there as well: Sūrat al-Qamar named the offence by way of the right of the guest. Al-Naml names the act directly.
The root ج-ه-ل was treated in al-Ḥujurāt, and the distinction recorded there is decisive here: the common sense of the root is "not to know"; but in Arabic jahl is used as the opposite not only of ʿilm but also of ḥilm. Ḥilm — mastery over anger and impulse, gravity of bearing. On this, jahl means surrender to impulse as much as it means ignorance.
And the distinction is necessary here, because the verse itself had said in the preceding sentence wa antum tubṣirūn ("you see").
| Word | Its opposite | What it means here |
|---|---|---|
| Jahl | ʿIlm | Not knowing — this conflicts with the verse's own qualification |
| Jahl | Ḥilm | Surrender to impulse — this fits the context |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two verses stand together: tubṣirūn ("you see") and tajhalūn ("you act in ignorance") are two sentences of the same speech. For the two not to contradict each other, the second word must be read in its second sense rather than as "ignorance".
And the word shahwatan supports this: the root ش-ه-و — intense desire. The sentence locates the cause of the act in desire, not in ignorance.
A qualification, per the method (Method): this verse contains an act that the verse itself describes, and in this commentary no legal ruling is issued and the views of the schools of law are not debated. I speak not about persons but about the act the verse names.