Lut - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lot is an apostle and prophet

Prophets of Islam

Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...

of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

in the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

. He also appears in the Bible, but the Biblical stories of Lot are not entirely accepted within Islam. According to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic tradition, Lot lived in Ur

Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...

and was the son of Haran

Haran

Haran or Aran is a figure in Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. Haran was born in Ur Kaśdim , the son of Terah and thus a descendant of Shem. Haran's brothers were Abram/Abraham and Nahor...

and nephew of Abraham. He migrated with Abraham to Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

in Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

. He was commissioned as a prophet to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

. His story is used as a reference by Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s to demonstrate Islam's disapproval of homosexuality. He was commanded by God

God in Islam

In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular . God is unique and inherently One , all-merciful and omnipotent. According to the Islamic...

to go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to preach to his people on monotheism

Tawhid

Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. It is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds God is one and unique ....

and to stop them from their lustful and violent acts. According to both the Qur'an

Qur'an

and the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

, Lot's messages were ignored by the inhabitants and Sodom and Gomorrah were subsequently destroyed. One major difference between the story of Lot in the Qur'an and the story of Lot in the Bible

Biblical narratives and the Qur'an

The Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam, contains references to over fifty people and events also found in the Bible. While the stories told in each book are generally comparable in most respects, important differences sometimes emerge....

is that the Biblical version includes the story of Lot being induced to incest

Incest

Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...

uous relations with his own daughters. The Qur'an says that Lot is a prophet

Prophet

In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...

, and holds that all prophets were examples of moral and spiritual rectitude. Though it is not altogether clear in the Bible story that Lot consented to his action, in Islam these stories of incest are considered to be false.

Context in the Qur'an

The narrative of Lot occupies a relatively large space in the Qur'an

Qur'an

. Most of these passages place the narrative of Lot in a line of successive prophet

Prophet

s including Noah

Noah

Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...

, Hud

Hud (prophet)

Hud is the name of a prophet of ancient Arabia, who is mentioned in the Qur'an. The eleventh chapter of the Qur'an, Hud, is named after him, though the narrative of Hud comprises only a small portion of the chapter.-Historical context:...

, Saleh

Saleh

Saleh or Salih was a prophet of ancient Arabia mentioned in the Qur'an, who prophesied to the tribe of the Thamud. He is mentioned nine times throughout the Qur'an and his people are frequently referenced as a wicked community who, because of their sins, were ultimately destroyed...

and Shoaib

Shoaib

Shuʿayb, or Shoaib, , was an ancient Midianite prophet, who is mentioned in the Qur'an a total of 11 times. He is believed to have lived after Abraham, and Muslims believe that he was sent as a prophet to two communities, namely the Midianites and the People of the Wood. To both the people, Shoaib...

. Scholars have, in the past stated, that these particular prophets represent the early cycle of prophecy as described in the Qur'an: The prophet would be sent to his community; the community would pay no attention to his warning and would instead threaten him with punishment; after years of preaching, God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

would ask the prophet to leave his community and his people would be subsequently destroyed in a punishment. Scholars interpret the listing of the five prophets to be chronological, with Noah

Noah

being the only prophet in the list who preached before the Great Flood. Lot is also mentioned alongside Ishmael

Ishmael

Ishmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...

, Elisha

Elisha

Elisha is a prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic.-Biblical biography:...

and Jonah

Jonah

Jonah is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC, the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation...

as men whom God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

favored above the nations.

Narrative in Islam

According to the Qur'an

Qur'an

, Lot was a prophet

Prophet

and a nephew of Abraham. A group of angel

Angel

Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...

s visited Abraham as guests and gave him glad tidings of a son "endowed with wisdom", they told him that they had been sent by God to the "guilty people" of Lot to destroy themwith "a shower of stones of clay (brimstone

Fire and brimstone

Fire and brimstone is an idiomatic expression of signs of God's wrath in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. In the Bible, they often appear in reference to the fate of the unfaithful. "Brimstone," possibly the ancient name for sulfur, evokes the acrid odor of volcanic activity...

)" and deliver Lot and those who believed in him, except his wife saying "she is of those who lag behind". The Qur'an also draws upon Lot's wife as an "example for the unbelievers" as she was married to a righteous man but cheated him by not believing in his message and was thus condemned to Hell

Jahannam

Jahannam is the Arabic language equivalent to Hell. The term comes from the Greek Gehenna, itself derived from the Hebrew geographical name for the Valley of Hinnom.-Jahannam in the Qur'an:...

.

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah, the twin cities which Lot was sent to with God's message, transgressed consciously against the bounds of God. Their avarice led to inhospitality and robbery, which in turn led to the humiliation of strangers by mistreatment and rape. It was their abominable sin of homosexuality which was seen as symptomatic of their attitudes, and upon Lot's exhorting them to abandon their transgression against God, they ridiculed him, threatening with dire consequences; Lot only prayed to God to be saved from doing as they did.

Then three angels in the disguise of handsome young boys came to Lot, who became distressed knowing the character of the people, and feeling himself powerless to protect the visitors; he said: "This is a distressful day." When the people - overjoyed at the news of new young boys in the village - came to snatch them away from Lot, he tried to convince them to refrain from practising their lusts on the visitors, and offered his own daughters to them in return for the boys' free release, but they were unrelenting and replied "we have no need of your daughters: indeed you know quite well what we want!" The Qur'an remarks "... they moved blindly in the frenzy of approaching death".

Lot was powerless to protect the boys, but they revealed to him that they were indeed angels sent by God

Islamic view of angels

Angels are mentioned many times in the Qur'an and Hadith. Islam is clear on the nature of angels in that they are messengers of God. They have no free will, and can do only what God orders them to do...

to punish the people for their transgressions. They advised Lot to leave the place during the night and not look back, informing him that his wife would be left behind on account of her sinful nature and that they "...were about to bring down upon the folk of this township a fury from the sky because they are evil-doers". Keeping his faith in God, Lot left his home and the cities during the night with his family and others who believed in him, and only his wife stayed behind. When morning came, God turned the cities upside down, and rained down on them brimstones hard as baked clay, spread, layer on layer' putting an end to the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

once and for all.

Monument

Bani Na'im

Bani Na'im is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank located east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. The town had a population of 20,084 inhabitants in 2007...

houses the tomb of the prophet

Prophet

Lot in the center of the town. The tomb is located within a rectangular mosque with an inner court and minaret. Lot's tomb is first mentioned by catholic scholar Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...

of Jerusalem in the 4th century CE. The tomb of his daughters are on an opposite hill nearby. To the southeast of Bani Na'im

Bani Na'im

Bani Na'im is a Palestinian town in the southern West Bank located east of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate. The town had a population of 20,084 inhabitants in 2007...

is a shrine dedicated to Lot, known as Maqam an-Nabi Yatin ("Shrine of the Truthful Prophet"). Local legend claims Lot prayed at the site and imprints of his feet in a rock there are visible. According to Muslim legend and Catholic tradition, Bani Na'im is the place where the patriarch Abraham

Abraham

Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

, after the departure of the angels, saw the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

rising as the smoke of a furnace.

Context in the Qur'an

Narrative in Islam

Monument

See also