كَذَّبَتْ قَوْمُ لُوطٍ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ
The people of Lot impugned the apostles
إِذْ قَالَ لَهُمْ أَخُوهُمْ لُوطٌ أَلَا تَتَّقُونَ
when Lot, their brother, said to them, ‘Will you not be wary [of Allah]?
إِنِّى لَكُمْ رَسُولٌ أَمِينٌۭ
Indeed I am a trusted apostle [sent] to you.
فَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ
So be wary of Allah and obey me.
وَمَآ أَسْـَٔلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْرٍ ۖ إِنْ أَجْرِىَ إِلَّا عَلَىٰ رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
I do not ask you any reward for it; my reward lies only with the Lord of all the worlds.
أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلذُّكْرَانَ مِنَ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
What! Of all people do you come to males,
وَتَذَرُونَ مَا خَلَقَ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّنْ أَزْوَٰجِكُم ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ عَادُونَ
abandoning your wives your Lord has created for you? Indeed, you are a transgressing lot.’
قَالُوا۟ لَئِن لَّمْ تَنتَهِ يَٰلُوطُ لَتَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْمُخْرَجِينَ
They said, ‘Lot, if you do not desist, you will surely be banished.’
قَالَ إِنِّى لِعَمَلِكُم مِّنَ ٱلْقَالِينَ
He said, ‘Indeed I detest your conduct.’
رَبِّ نَجِّنِى وَأَهْلِى مِمَّا يَعْمَلُونَ
‘My Lord! Deliver me and my family from what they do.’
فَنَجَّيْنَٰهُ وَأَهْلَهُۥٓ أَجْمَعِينَ
So We delivered him and all his family,
إِلَّا عَجُوزًۭا فِى ٱلْغَٰبِرِينَ
except an old woman who remained behind.
ثُمَّ دَمَّرْنَا ٱلْءَاخَرِينَ
Then We destroyed [all] the rest,
وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهِم مَّطَرًۭا ۖ فَسَآءَ مَطَرُ ٱلْمُنذَرِينَ
and rained down upon them a rain [of stones]. Evil was the rain of those who were warned!
إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَةًۭ ۖ وَمَا كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
There is indeed a sign in that; but most of them do not have faith.
وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
Indeed your Lord is the All-mighty, the All-merciful.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Lūṭ's story again opens on the shared frame — the people of Lūṭ denied the messengers… their brother Lūṭ… a trustworthy messenger… I ask no wage — and here Ṭūsī pauses on a theological point the frame invites: Lūṭ's declaring himself "a trustworthy messenger" is permissible self-praise only for a prophet, "because the proof of his ʿiṣma stands," whereas others, liable to error, may not. Ṭūsī also reads the uniform wording of every prophet's call as a deliberate signal "that the truth they bring is one."
The indictment (165–166). The pericope's substance is Lūṭ's charge — do you approach the males of all creatures, and leave what your Lord created for you of your wives? Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī gloss it plainly: abandoning "the wives and women God created for you" for "the males among mankind," so that you are a transgressing people (qawm ʿādūn) means those who "cross from the lawful to the forbidden." al-Mīzān grounds the same verse in a natural-law argument: reflection on the two sexes and "the organs proper to each" shows the Maker's purpose is procreative union — "the man qua man is created for the woman, not for a man like himself" — a natural pairing (zawjiyya ṭabīʿiyya) prior to the social institution of marriage; hence what your Lord created for you… of your wives, and hence the deed is a transgression "of the bound drawn by nature" (cross-linking 29:29). Ṭabāṭabāʾī concludes, as throughout the sūra, that "his speech rests on a demonstrative proof."
The threat, the loathing, and the prayer (167–169). To their threat if you cease not… you shall be among those cast out, Lūṭ answers not by defending himself but with I am, of your deed, among the abhorrers (al-qālīn) — and all four Arabic sources, including the terse glosses of al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī (both: "among those who detest it, al-mubghiḍīn"), agree qālī means the loather. al-Mīzān reads his non-answer as saying "I do not fear expulsion… but loathe your deed and seek deliverance from the ruin surely coming," which flows into his prayer My Lord, deliver me and my family from what they do — and al-Mīzān notes he names only himself and his family because "none of the town's people believed in him" (51:36).
The deliverance and destruction (170–175). We delivered him and all his family, except an old woman among those who stayed behind — Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī identify her as Lūṭ's wife, who "used to direct the corrupt to his guests." Then We destroyed the rest and rained upon them a rain — Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī note the destruction by khasf (swallowing) or iʾtifāk (overturning) followed by the stoning of those absent, while al-Mīzān identifies the rain as sijjīl (baked clay, 15:74). Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī observe that the rain is called "evil" though it was justice, "for it brought the people's ruin." The story closes on the sūra's refrain: most of them were not believers; your Lord is the Almighty, the Merciful.