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Surah 11. Hud, Ayah 69

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وَلَقَدْ جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَآ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ بِٱلْبُشْرَىٰ قَالُوا۟ سَلَـٰمًا ۖ قَالَ سَلَـٰمٌ ۖ فَمَا لَبِثَ أَن جَآءَ بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍ
Walaqad j a at rusulun a ibr a heema bi a lbushr a q a loo sal a man q a la sal a mun fam a labitha an j a a biAAijlin h anee th in
AND, INDEED, there came unto Abraham Our [heavenly] messengers, bearing a glad tiding.99 They bade him peace; [and] he answered, "[And upon you be] peace!" - and made haste to place before them100 a roasted calf.
  - Mohammad Asad

The Qur'an does not state in so many words that these guests of Abraham were angels; but since the term rusuluna ("Our messengers") is often used in the sense of heavenly messengers, all the classical commentators interpret it thus in the above context. For the contents of the "glad tiding" referred to here, see verse {71} below.-The reason for prefacing the story of Lot with an episode from Abraham's life lies in the latter's subsequent pleading in behalf of the sinful people of Sodom (verses {74-76}) and also, possibly, in God's earlier promise to him, "Behold, I shall make thee a leader of men" (see 2:124 ), which must have imbued him with an enhanced sense of moral responsibility not only for his own family but also for the people with whom he was indirectly connected through his nephew Lot (Lut in Arabic).

Lit., "and did not delay in bringing". Regarding the deeper implications of the word "peace" (salam) as used in this passage, see surah {5}, note [29].

Our Messengers came to Ibrahim (Abraham) with good news. They said "Peace be upon you." He answered "Peace be upon you too," and hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf.
  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik
And surely Our messenger-angels came to Abraham with good news 'of a son'. They greeted 'him with', 'Peace!' And he replied, 'Peace 'be upon you'!' Then it was not long before he brought 'them' a 'fat,' roasted calf.
  - Mustafa Khattab
And Our messengers came unto Abraham with good news. They said: Peace! He answered: Peace! and delayed not to bring a roasted calf.
  - Marmaduke Pickthall
There came Our Messengers to Abraham with glad tidings. They said "Peace!" He answered "Peace!" and hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf. 1565
  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

According to the sequence of Sura vii, the next reference should be to the story of Lut, and that story commences at xi. 77 below, but it is introduced by a brief reference to an episode in the life of his uncle Abraham, from whose seed sprang the peoples to whom Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad Al-Mustafa were sent with the major Revelations. Abraham had by this time passed through the fire of persecutions in the Mesopotamian valleys: he had left behind him the ancestral idolatry of Ur of the Chaldees; he had been tried and he had triumphed over the persecution of Nimrud: he had now taken up his residence in Canaan, from which his newphew Lot (Lut) was called to preach to the wicked Cities of the Plain east of the Dead sea which is itself called Bahr Lut. Thus prepared and sanctified, he was now ready to receive the Message that he was chosen to be the progenitor of a great line of Prophets, and that Message is now referred to. Can we localise Nimrud? If local tradition in place-names can be relied upon, this king must have ruled over the tract which includes the modern Nimrud, on the Tigris, about twenty miles south of Mosul. This is the site of Assyrian ruins of great interest, but the rise of Assyria as an Empire was of course much later than the time of Abraham. The Assyrian city was called Kalakh (or Calah), and archaeological excavations carried out there have yielded valuable results, which are however irrelevant for our Commentary. A) Abraham received the strangers with a salutation of Peace, and immediately placed before them a sumptuous meal of roasted calf. The strangers were embarrassed. They were angels and did not eat. If hospitality is refused, it means that those who refuse it meditate no good to the would be host. Abraham therefore had a feeling of mistrust and fear in his mind, which the strangers at once set at rest by saying that their mission was in the first place to help Lut as a warner to the Cities of Plain. But in the second place they had good news for Abraham; he was to be the father of great peoples!

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