63. The land inhabited by the people of Lot, which lies between Iraq and
Palestine, is known as Trans-Jordan. According to the Bible, its capital town
was Sodom, which is situated either somewhere near the Dead Sea, or presently
lies submerged under it.. Apart from Sodom, according to the Talmud, there were
four other majour cities, and the land lying between these cities was dotted
with such greenery and orchards that the whole area looked like one big garden
enchanting any onlooker. However, the whole nation was destroyed and today wc
can find no trace of it. So much so that it is difficult to even locate the
main cities which they inhabited. If anything remains as a reminder of this
nation it is the Dead Sea which is also called the Sea of Lot. The Prophet Lot
who was a nephew of the Prophet Abraham, accompanied his uncle as he moved away
from Iraq. Lot sojourned to Syria, Palestincand Egypt forawhile and gained practical
experience of preaching his message. Later God bettowed prophethood upon him
and assigned to him the mission of reforming his misguided people. The people
of Sodom have been referred to as the people of Lot presumably because Lot may
have established matrimonial ties with those people.
One of the many accusations recorded gainst Lot in the Bible - and the Bible
has been tampered with extensively by the Jews - is that Lot migrated to Sodom
after an argument with Abraham (Genesis 13: 10-12).
The Qur'an refutes this baseless charge and affirms that Lot was designated
by God to work as His Messenger among his people.
The author refers to an argument between Abraham and Lot which he considers
to be a fabrication of Jews.The obvious basis of this is that such an argument
between the Prophets is inconceivable since it is unbecoming of them as Prophets.
The basis of this inference is a statement in Genesis 13:1-12.
It seems that there has been some confusion with regard to this inference. The
verses of Genesis in question make no reference to any strife between the two
Prophets. The strife to which it refers allegedly took place between the two
Prophets. In addition, when the two Prophets parted company it was on a pleasant
note for Abraham had suggested that since there was an abundance of land, Lot
should choose that part of the land he preffered so as to exclude all possibilities
of strife between their herdsmen. (See Genesis 13:1-5-Ed.)