LUT (LOT) THE PROPHET

LUT (LOT) THE PROPHET

The Holy Quran says: And We sent Lut who said to his people: Why do you commit such indecent acts that have never been committed by anyone before? In preference to women you satisfy your lust with men. Indeed you are a people who are guilty of excess. His people had no answer to his remarks but they told one another, “Expel him from our town, he and his people profess to be pure” We saved Lut and his family except his wife who was one of those who stayed behind. (7:80-83) Prophet Lut was the nephew of Prophet Abraham. He embraced the faith of Prophet Abraham and migrated from Babylon with him to Egypt. Again Prophet Abraham migrated towards Palestine from Egypt after growing rich and possessing enough livestock and wealth. When he arrived at the coast of the Dead Sea, he left Prophet Lut at the land of Sodom in borders of Jordan to summon its people to believe in God and to do good, as per the command of the Almighty God. Thus Prophet Lut settles down in Sodom after getting married and God gave him believing daughters. The people of this place were wicked, bad-tempered, indecent and lustful as they indulged in abominable and immoral things. Social and moral corruption was quite prevalent among them. For instance, if any traveler passed by the town, these people used to come one by one and robbed him of his properties, goods or whatever he had and leave him alone in that miserable situation. People of Sodom, using vulgar language, gambling, playing dirty music, and throwing stones at the passers by, and indifference to filth and dirt were among their common habits. Their custom was to throw stones at guests. Whoever was the first to hit a guest, the guest would be his share. Once Prophet Abraham’s wife, Sarah sent her slave to the district of Sodom to report about the welfare of Prophet Lut. When this slave reached there a man struck him in his head with a stone and it started bleeding. That man then grabbed his collar and said, If this blood had remained inside your body it would have been harmful to you and, therefore, you should pay me for doing you this favor.
The slave refused to pay anything to the man. The matter was referred to the court of law. The Judge decreed against the slave and asked him to pay the man for the trouble he took for him. When the slave saw this high-handedness and the gross injustice, he hit the Judge with a stone and his head also started bleeding. At this he said to the Judge, “You should pay this man whatever is due to me for the trouble I took for your sake.” Thus the people of Prophet Lut were guilty of such abominable sins the example of which was never heard before. One of such despicable acts was that they openly indulged in sodomy (homosexuality). Besides, they committed all sorts of wanton and lewd acts including merry-making, singing, gambling
and throwing of filth on passers by. Prophet Lut was a very noble person. He started to preach to them about the Unique God, informing them of the punishment awaiting evil people, and advising them and guiding them to the way of eternal bliss and happiness. He did his utmost to guide his people to give up their abominable habits and perform noble deeds. But they had gone to the extreme of moral degradation so much so that Prophet Lut’s preaching’s had no effect on them. Prophet Lut lived in that corrupt society, thus, he led a life full of sufferings.
About thirty (30) years of Prophet Lut’s teachings and guidance yielded no tangible result. Only a handful of people who could be counted on finger tips received the guidance while the rest of them remained disgustingly mean with lewd deeds. When they saw that Prophet Lut was frequently inter fering with their affairs they decided to expel him and his handful of followers from the town. But Prophet Lut increased his efforts to bring them to the right path and warned them that the Wrath of God would some day overtake them without prior notice.
The condemned people as they were, they unabashedly taunted Prophet Lut to let the Divine curse befall them as they did not care at all about it. Corruption increased day by day. Lut’s sufferings also increased day by day. The people of Sodom hurt the feelings of Lut.
Prophet Lut became extremely disappointed with the insolent behavior of the people and he realized that they were the group of misguided fools and it was not appropriate to pursue with them anymore. They had become like malignant tumor in the society and just as an organ suffering from malignancy needed amputation from the body they deserved extermination from the society. Prophet Lut then raised his arms high in the air in invoking God to send down upon them His torment. The Almighty God granted Prophet Lut’s prayers and He deputed His angels to chastise the stubborn people. First of all these three (3) angels in the guise of human beings called on Prophet Abraham in his house. He thought they were travelers who were passing by his house and who had come for an overnight stay and rest. Thus Prophet Abraham welcomed them with an open arm and served them with nicely cooked dishes but they did not even touch the meals. At this Prophet Abraham got frightened and worried. Because there were some customs at that time, among them was that the guest should eat the food offered to him. If he refused the food, he refused entertainment and bore malice against the entertainer. If the guest ate the food, friendship would take place between him and the entertainer. Then the angels in the human form introduced themselves to the exalted Prophet and said, “We pass on to you glad news. By the Grace of God, you will be blessed with a son whose name will be Isaac.” They also told Prophet Abraham that they were on an important Divine Mission of destroying the people of Prophet Lut and were heading towards Jordan. When Prophet Abraham identified his guests his fear vanished and he interceded with them so that God’s Wrath on Prophet Lut’s people might be condoned. But the angels in reply said, “You should better keep off as God’s command has already been final now and the destruction of Prophet Lut’s people is a foregone conclusion. Only Prophet Lut family people will remain safe except his wife who is from amongst the transgressors and who will be perished along with the rest.” After coming out of Prophet Abraham’s house, the angels assumed the shape of extremely handsome and youthful male persons and reached Sodom and knocked the door of Prophet Lut’s house. Prophet
Lut became much perplexed by seeing such beautiful persons. On the one hand he desired to welcome them wholeheartedly and be hospitable with them and on the other he feared a great risk as he knew of his people’s debased mentality. There was no alternative left for Prophet Lut but to welcome them in his house and treat them nicely. No sooner had the guests arrived at the house than the wife of Prophet Lut (Wahela) signaled to the people the arrival of beautiful young men in the house of her husband. All of them then swarmed round Prophet Lut’s house and started demanding him to hand over his guests to them for their night’s great pleasure of enjoying the company of handsome young men. Prophet Lut pleaded with the people not to disgrace him before his noble guests and advised them to take women folk as their wives and put an end to the indecent practice of homosexuality. But the people paid no heed to his imploration and broke into his house like beasts. Prophet Lut could not help it and instead he said, “If I had any power I would have given you a good lesson by bringing you to your senses?” When the angels who had come to him realized the gravity of the situation, they revealed to Prophet
Lut and said, “O Lut! We are sent by God to protect you and to punish these people.” Not a moment had passed that these people ran amok out of sheer fright and from there ran up to take shelter in their abodes. Prophet Lut then returned to his original condition as his fear was allayed by the angels. The angels counseled Prophet Lut to leave the town by midnight and go to a safe place with his family people except his wife so that the Divine Wrath and God’s terrible torment might befall his rebellious people soon. Angel Gabriel waved his arm and the people who were surrounding the house of the Prophet Lut became blindfold. In the mean time, Prophet Lut and his followers left the city of Sodom. When Prophet Lut along with his daughters and followers had gone away to a safe place out of the town, a terrible earthquake overtook the town and rocked the earth in a terrific upside down motion and thereafter the people were hit down by pebble-stones. By this Divine Power they met with a disgraceful end. The ruins of Sodom are still standing. They are salt and burnt stones. One should learn lesson, from such eventful
episodes and try to reform himself. The punishment of sodomy in Islam is either to cause both the individuals crushed by bringing them under a wall and affecting it to fall upon them or stone them to death or to slay them. Once a slave was brought to Imam Ali (pbuh) with the
charge of murdering his master. Imam Ali asked the slave as to what he had to say about the
charge against him. The slave confessed and said that he could not help doing what he had
done for his master wanted to commit sodomy with him and when he did not agree with his master, he committed the loathsome act by force. Imam Ali asked if he had any witness in support of his statement. The slave replied that where could there be a witness when he and his
master were in a house and the act was committed in the midnight at which he decided to murder him and he did murder him. Imam Ali asked if the master at receiving the wound repented and sought the pardon of Almighty God. The slave replied, ‘No’. Imam Ali hearing this exclaimed. ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ and said that the slave was uttering the truth but ordered the people to go and open the grave of the slain master of the slave and if the body was there in the grave, the slave shall be punished and if not the slave should be acquitted. People went and found the
grave empty; the body of the man, just then buried had disappeared and the people returned and reported the matter to Imam Ali. Who decreed that the slave be let off. People wondered and said that unto then Imam Ali ruled over the alive and now his rule had extended also
over the dead and asked Imam Ali from where did he know about the secret of the grave, Imam Ali replied ‘from the Holy Prophet Mohammad (pbuh)’ for he had said that the body of the sodomist who had not repented before his death be that buried any where is removed to the graves of the sodomists in Sodom to remain there to be resurrected along with the sodomists on the Day of Judgment. This instance can be as a heavenly sign given to the world through Imam Ali, so reassure them of the gravity of unnatural filthy crime compared to the other sins.
The Holy Quran says: The people of Lut rejected (his) warning. We sentagainst them a violent Tornado with showers of stones, (which destroyed them), except Lut’s household: them We delivered by early Dawn - As a Grace from Us: thus do We reward those who give thanks. And (Lut) did warn them of Our Punishment, but they disputed about the Warning.
(54:33-36) Archaeological studies reveal that the city Sodom is located in the area of the Dead Sea which stretches along the Israel-Jordan border. The lava and basalt layers constitute the greatest evidence that a volcanic explosion and earthquake had once taken place here. The catastrophe depicted in the following expression as “we rained down on them brimstones hard as baked clay, spread, layer on layer” in the Quran most probably points to this volcanic explosion, and God knows best. The expression “When Our Decree issued, We turned (the cities) upside down” which occurs in the same verse, must be referring to the earthquake which caused volcanoes to erupt over the surface of the earth with devastating impact, and to the fissures and debris brought by it, and only God knows the truth of it. The Lake of Lut, as well as the incidents that have taken place around it, deserves attention geologically. The Lake is approximately 400
meters below the surface of the Mediterranean. Since the deepest place in the Lake is 400 meters, the bottom of the Lake is 800 meters below the surface of the Mediterranean. This is the lowest point on the earth. In other areas which are lower than sea level, the depth is at
most 100 meters. Another property of the Lake of Lut is that the salt content of its water is very high, 5 times as salty as a typical ocean, the density being nearly 30%. Because of this, no living organism, such as fish or moss, can survive in this lake. This is why the Lake of Lut is called the “Dead Sea” in Western literature.