35. Please compare this with (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayats 80-84) and (Surah Houd, Ayats 77-83).
36. Here the story has been related in brief. But we learn from (Surah Houd, Ayats 77-83) that Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) was greatly perturbed and distressed at the visit of the angels. He said to himself, “This is a day of woe.” The reason why he was distressed, as implied in the Quran and explicitly expressed in the traditions, was that the angels had come to Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) in the form of beautiful boys, and he knew how perverse and wicked his people were. He was distressed for he could not send them away because they were his guests, and because he did not know how to protect them from those villains.
37. That is, you should walk behind your people lest anyone of them should stay behind.
38. It did not mean: “look not behind thee, lest thou be consumed,” as stated in the Bible. But it merely meant to warn them: None of you should turn round to see what was happening behind them lest you should stop to see when you heard the cries of the smitten people. For it is neither the time nor the place viewing the destruction nor shedding tears of regret. If you stop even for a minute in the territory of the smitten people you also might get hurt from the rain of stones.