21. Now, from here to the end of verse 46, brief allusions have been made, one after the other, about Allah’s Prophets and some of the nations of the past, which are meant to impress two things:
First, that in human history God’s law of retribution has been working constantly, in which precedents are found of the rewards for the righteous and of punishments for the wicked people continuously. This is a clear evidence of the fact that even in the life of this world the Creator’s relationship with man is not merely based on the physical law but the moral law also is working side by aide with it. And when the temper of the kingdom of the universe is such that the creation which has been given an opportunity to act morally while living in a physical body, should not only be dealt with on the basis of physical laws, like animals and plants, but the moral law also should be applied to its moral acts. This by itself points to the truth that a time must come in this kingdom when on the completion of man’s role in the physical world, full results of his moral acts should also appear strictly in accordance with the moral law because in the physical world they do not appear fully.
The second thing that has been impressed by these historical allusions is that the nations which did not believe in the Prophets of Allah and based the conduct and attitude in life on the denial of the Oneness of Allah, the Prophethood and the Hereafter, were ultimately doomed to destruction. This continuous experience of history testifies that God’s law of morality that was conveyed through the Prophets, and on the basis of which man will be subjected to accountability in the Hereafter, is entirely based on the truth. For whichever nation determined its conduct and attitude in the world independent of this law, considering itself irresponsible and unaccountable, has gone straight to its doom.
22. This story has been narrated at three places in the Quran, in (Surah Hood, Ayats 69-73); (Surah Al-Hijr, Ayats 51-56) and (Surah Al-Ankabut, Ayat 31).
23. In view of the context in which this sentence has occurred, it can have two meanings:
(1) That the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) himself said to the guests: I have never had the chance to see you before, you are perhaps new-comers in this land.
(2) That after responding to their salutation, the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) said these words to himself, or to his servants, while going inside the house for arranging the feast: They appear to be strangers, people of their noble nature and appearance have not been seen before in this land.
24. That is, he did not tell his guests that he was going to arrange food for them, but after they were seated he went quietly into the house to arrange a feast for them, so that the guests should not refuse it out of formality.
25. In Surah Hood, the words are ijlin hanidh, a roasted calf; here bi-ijlin samin: a fatted calf that he got roasted.
26. That is, when they did not stretch out their hands for food, the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) became afraid in his heart. The reason for this fear could be that in tribal life the strangers’ going to a house and avoiding food used to be an indication that they had come with an evil design. But most probably when they refrained from food the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) realized that they were angels, who had come in human guise; and since the angels came in human guise only on extraordinary occasions, he became afraid that they must have come in that guise on some dreadful mission.
27. According to( Surah Hood, Ayat 71), this was the good news of the birth of the Prophet Isaac and this also contained the good news that through the Prophet Isaac he would have a grandson like the Prophet Jacob (peace be upon them all).
28. That is, I am not only old but barren too. How shall a child be born to me? According to the Bible, the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) at that time was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety (Gen. 17: 17).
29. The object of this story is to tell that Allah will certainly reward His servant, who did full justice to the rights of His worship in the world, handsomely in the Hereafter. But even in this world he rewarded him well by giving him children at an age when according to the common physical laws he could not beget children and his aged wife having remained childless throughout life had completely despaired of ever bearing children; and then He granted him such extraordinary children as have not been granted to any one else in the world. There has been no other man in history in whose line four Prophets might have been born in succession. It was the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) alone whose line continued to be blessed with Prophethood for three generations, and the illustrious Prophets like Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (peace be upon them) emerged from his house.
30. As the angels come in human guise only on highly important occasions, the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) used the word khatb to find out the purpose of their visit; the word khatb in Arabic is used for an errand of same extraordinary nature.
31. That is, to the people of the Prophet Lot (peace be upon him). The epithet of a criminal people was enough to tell which people were meant in view of the gravity of their crimes. They have already been mentioned in the Quran in (Surah Al-Araf, Ayats 80-84); (Surah Hood, Ayats 74-83); (Surah Al-Hijr, Ayats 58-79); (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayats 74-75); (Surah Ash-Shuara, Ayats 160-175); (Surah An-Naml, Ayats 54-58); (Surah As-Saaffat, Ayats 133-137).
32. That is, each stone has been marked by your Lord’s command to show for which culprit it is meant. According to the details given in the Quran, in Surahs Hood and AlHijr, their towns were turned upside down, and then showered with stones of baked clay. From this one can understand that the entire land was overturned by a severe earthquake and the people who tried to escape were showered with brimstone and destroyed.
33. As to what happened between them and the people of the Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) when the angels reached his house after their meeting with the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon them), has been left out. The details have been given in the Surahs Hood, Al-Hijr and Al Ankabut. Here mention is being made only of the time when they were going to be visited by the scourge.
34. That is, among the entire nation and in the entire land there was only one house that shone with the light of the faith and Islam, and it was no other but the house of the Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) himself. The rest of the nation was sunk deep in sin and wickedness and its whole country was brimming over with filth and immorality. Therefore Allah rescued the people of that one house and then sent down the torment on the land, which did not spare any one of the wicked people. In this verse three important themes have been discussed:
(1) That Allah’s law of retribution does not decree the total destruction of a nation as long as there remains a considerable element of good in it. As against the majority of the bad people if it still contains a small element of those who continue trying to invite others to the right way, Allah gives it an opportunity to work, and goes on increasing the respite of the nation which is not yet wholly devoid of goodness. But in case there remains no element of goodness at all in the nation, Allah’s law is that He somehow rescues by His power and grace some of the good people, who might have become weary and helpless fighting evil in its settlements, and deals with the rest as every sensible master would deal with his rotten fruit.
(2) That Muslim is not the name only of the people who are the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) but of all the Prophets before him and their followers who were also Muslims. Their religions were not mutually exclusive that one might be the religion of the Prophet Abraham, another of the Prophet Moses and still another of the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon them all), but they all were Muslims and their religion was this same Islam. This truth has been explained at several places in the Quran and there is no room for ambiguity in this regard. For instance, see (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayats 128, 131-132); (Surah Aal- Imran, Ayat 67); (Surah Al-Maidah, Ayats 44, 111); (Surah Younus, Ayats 72, 84); (Surah Yousuf, Ayat 101); (Surah Al- Aaraf, Ayat 126); (Surah An-Naml, Ayats 31,42, 44).
(3) That the words Mumin and Muslim have been used as synonyms in this verse. If this verse is read with (verse 14 of Surah Al-Hujurat), the error of the thinking of those people becomes obvious, who regard Mumin and Muslim as two independent terms of the Quran, which have been used in one and the same meaning every where, and Muslim is necessarily used for the person who might have entered the fold of Islam by professing the faith only verbally, without true faith. (For further explanation, see (E.N. 31 of Surah Al-Hujurat).
35. A sign: the Dead Sea, southern part of which still presents the signs of a great disaster. The archaeologists have expressed the opinion that the principal cities of the people of Lot were probably sunk underground and the waters of the Dead Sea spread over them. For that part of this sea which is situated to the south of the small peninsula called Al-Lisan clearly seems to be a later development, and the signs of the ruins of the Dead Sea found to the north of this peninsula are very different from those found in the south. From this it is concluded that the southern part was once higher than the sea level. At some later time it sank and went under water. The period of its sinking also seems to be about 2000 B.C. and the same precisely is the time of the Prophets Abraham and Lot (peace be upon them) historically. In 1965 an American archaeological research party discovered a large graveyard at Al-Lisan which contains more than twenty thousand graves. From this one is led to think that nearby it there must have existed a large city. But no ruins of any such city are found in the adjoining area, which might have given rise to such a big graveyard. This fact also strengthens the doubt that the city whose graveyard it was has sunk under the sea. The area to the south of the sea still abounds in the ruins and the underground stocks of sulfur, resin, tar and natural gas found in this area lead one to believe that hell must have been let loose at this place at some time by the eruption of lava and the play of lightning. (For further explanation, see ( E.N. 114 of Surah Ash-Shuara).
36. A clear authority: such miracles and clear evidences which made it absolutely manifest that he had been appointed as a Messenger by the Creator of the earth and heavens.
37. That is, they called him sometimes a sorcerer and sometimes a madman.
38. A whole history has been compressed into this brief sentence. To understand it well one should know that Pharaoh was the absolute ruler of the greatest center of civilization and culture of the world in those days and the people of the adjoining lands were overawed by his power and might. Obviously, when he might have sunk suddenly one day in the sea along with his armies, the event must have become well known not only in Egypt but among all the neighboring nations as well. At this, except for those whose kith and kin had sunk, there was no one else among their own people, or in the other nations of the world who would mourn them or write an elegy on them, or would at least express sorrow and say that good and noble people had become a victim of the disaster. Instead of this, as the world had become fed up with their wickedness and injustices, every person heaved a sigh of relief at their exemplary fate, everyone cursed them, and anyone who heard this news exclaimed that the wicked people had deserved the fate justly. In Surah Ad-Dukhan, the same thing has been expressed, thus: Then neither did the heavens weep on them nor the earth. (For explanation, see (E.N. 26 of Surah Ad-Dukhan).
39. The word used for this wind is aqim, which is used for a barren woman, though literally it means dry. If the literal meaning is taken it would mean that it was such an intensely hot and dry wind that whatever it blew on, it caused it to become absolutely dry; and if it is taken in the idiomatic sense it would mean that like a barren woman it was a wind without any benefit: neither it was pleasant, nor it brought rain, nor fertilized the trees, nor contained any other benefit for which the wind blows. At other places it has been stated that this wind was not only useless and dry but it blew so violently that it swept the people off the ground and it continued to rage for eight days and seven nights continuously, till it laid the entire land of the Aad to a waste. (For explanation, see ( E.Ns 20, 21 of Surah HaMim As-Sajdah), and ( E.Ns 25 to 28 of Surah Al-Ahqaf).
40. The commentators have disputed as to which respite it implies. Qatadah says that it alludes to that verse of Surah Houd in which it has been stated that when the Thamud killed the she camel of the Prophet Salih (peace be upon him), they were warned by Allah that they had three more days to enjoy life after which they would be overtaken by the torment. Contrary to this, Hasan Basri has expressed the opinion that this thing had been said by the Prophet Salih (peace be upon him) to his people in the beginning of his mission and by this he meant that if they would not adopt the way of repentance and faith, they would be granted a respite to enjoy life in the world only till an appointed time, and then they would be overtaken by the torment. The second of these two commentaries seems to be more correct, for the following verse (But they defied the command of their Lord) indicates that the respite being mentioned here had been given before the defiance and they committed it after the warning. On the contrary, the three days respite mentioned in Surah Houd had been given after the wicked people had committed the final defiance which became decisive in their case and sealed their doom forever afterwards.
41. Different words have been used for this torment at different places in the Quran. Somewhere it has been called rajafah (a frightful and shocking calamity), somewhere saihah (a crashing and thundering disaster), somewhere taghiyah (a most severe affliction) and here it has been described as saiqah (a calamity that strikes like a thunderbolt). Probably this torment was like an earthquake which was also accompanied by a terrible noise.
42. Intisar from which the word muntasirun in the original is derived means to save oneself from an attack by somebody as well as to avenge oneself on the attacker.