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Lit., "cut off".
As the last remnants of the wicked were to be cut off, and as the Mercy of Allah wished to save every true soul who might be with Lot, Allah's decree was made known to Lot, so that he might save his adherents.
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Sc., "of the arrival of handsome strangers". See also {7:80-81} and {11:77-79}, as well as the relevant notes.
They were addicted to unnatural crime, and the news of the advent of handsome youg men inflamed them. How true it is that at the very verge of destruction, men rush blindly to their fate, and cut off any last hope of repentence and mercy for themselves. Cf. xv. 72 below.
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Lit., "all people" (al-'alamin): obviously, because Lot was a stranger in Sodom - having come there from Mesopotamia, his and Abraham's country of origin (see surah {11}, note [102]) - and had previously aroused the ire of the Sodomites by his moral reproaches (cf. {7:80-82}).
I understand the meaning to be that Lot, the only righteous man in the City, had frequently remonstrated with the inhabitants against their unnatural crimes, and they had forbidden him to speak to them again on behalf of any one, "as if" (they might tauntingly say) "he was the protector of all and sundry." Some Commentators understand the verse to mean: 'Did we not forbid thee to entertain any strangers?'
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See surah {11}, note [109].
Single women of his community.
Cf. xi. 78, n. 1575. "My daughters" in the mouth of a venerable man may mean young girls of the City, which would be appropriate considering the large number of men who came to besiege Lot's house.
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The above two interpolations are based on Zamakhshari's commentary on this verse. The oath "As thou livest" reads, literally, "By thy life".
This is the only time in the Quran where Allah swears by the life of a human being. Elsewhere Allah swears by the sun, the moon, the stars, and other marvels of His creation.
The wild, mad fury of passion and sin attains its own destruction and cuts off the last hope of repentance or mercy.
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Regarding the meaning of the term Sayhah, rendered by me as "blast of [God's] punishment", see surah {11}, note [98].
As-Saihat, the mighty Blast, is mentioned as accompanying earthquakes: Cf. xi. 67-94. Here it was the violent wind and noise accompanying the shower of brimstones, possibly with some volcanic action.
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See surah {11}, note [114].
Cf. xi. 82 and notes, in which the word Sijjil and its origin are explained.
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In its full significance, the term mutawassim denotes "one who applies his mind to the study of the outward appearance of a thing with a view to understanding its real nature and its inner characteristics" (Zamakhshari and Razi).
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The existence of that road, which led from northern Hijaz to Syria, skirting the Dead Sea - to the north-east of which Sodom and Gomorrah were situated - has received startling confirmation through aerial photographs recently published by the American School of Oriental Research (New Haven, Connecticut). These photographs clearly show the ancient road as a dark streak winding northwards, more or less parallel with the eastern shores of the Dead Sea.
The Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly destroyed, and even their precise position cannot be identified. But the brimstone plain of the tract still exists, right on the highway between Arabia and Syria. To the traveller in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea the whole locality presents a scene of dismal desolation which truly suggests the awful punishment for unspeakable crimes.
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Verse 75 refers to all who have the intelligence to grasp the Signs of Allah. Verses 76-77 specially refer to those who use the Arabia-Syria highroad. The desolation is specially brought home to them.
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As is evident from 26:176 ff., the "dwellers of the wooded dales (al-aykah)" were the people of Madyan, who refused to pay heed to their prophet, Shu'ayb, and were thereupon destroyed, apparently by an earthquake and/or a volcanic eruption (cf. {7:85-93} and {11:84-95}).
"Companions of the Wood": As-hab ul Aikati. Perhaps Aika is after all a proper noun, the name of a town or tract. Who were the Companions of the Aika? They are mentioned four times in the Qur-an, viz., here, and in xxvi. 176-191; xxxviii. 13; and 1. 14. The only passage in which any details are given is xxvi. 176-191. There we are told that their Prophet was Shu'aib, and other details given correspond to those of the Madyan, to whom Shu'aib was sent as Prophet;, see vii. 85-93. In my notes to that passage I have discussed the question of Shu'aib and the Madyan people. It is reasonable to suppose that the Companions of the Wood were either the same as the Madyan, or a Group among them or in their neighbourhood.
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I.e., the people of Lot and those of Shu'ayb, who inhabited adjacent regions (see surah {7}, note [67]), and whose fate should be an example as plain to see as the highway which passes through the regions once inhabited by them.
Both: i.e., The Cities of the Plain and the Companions of the Aika.
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I.e., the tribe of Thamud (see surah {7}, note [56]), who in pre-Islamic times inhabited the region of Al-Hijr in northernmost Hijaz, south of the oasis of Taymah. The story of the Thamud is found in {7:73-79}.
lit., messengers, because denying Ṣâliḥ (ﷺ) was equal to denying all of Allah’s messengers.
"The Rocky Tract" is undoubtedly a geographical name. On the maps of Arabia will be found a tract called the Hijr, north of Medinah, Jabal Hijr is about 150 miles north of Madinah. The tract would fall on the highway to Syria. This was the country of the Thamud. For them and the country see vii. 73, n. 1043.
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