وَلَمَّا جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَآ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ بِٱلْبُشْرَىٰ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا مُهْلِكُوٓا۟ أَهْلِ هَٰذِهِ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ ۖ إِنَّ أَهْلَهَا كَانُوا۟ ظَٰلِمِينَ
And when Our messengers came to Abraham with the good news, they said, ‘We are indeed going to destroy the people of this town. Its people are indeed wrongdoers.’
قَالَ إِنَّ فِيهَا لُوطًۭا ۚ قَالُوا۟ نَحْنُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن فِيهَا ۖ لَنُنَجِّيَنَّهُۥ وَأَهْلَهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱمْرَأَتَهُۥ كَانَتْ مِنَ ٱلْغَٰبِرِينَ
He said, ‘Lot is in it.’ They said, ‘We know better those who are in it. We will surely deliver him and his family, except his wife: she shall be one of those who remain behind.’
وَلَمَّآ أَن جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَا لُوطًۭا سِىٓءَ بِهِمْ وَضَاقَ بِهِمْ ذَرْعًۭا وَقَالُوا۟ لَا تَخَفْ وَلَا تَحْزَنْ ۖ إِنَّا مُنَجُّوكَ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا ٱمْرَأَتَكَ كَانَتْ مِنَ ٱلْغَٰبِرِينَ
And when Our messengers came to Lot, he was distressed on their account and in a predicament for their sake. But they said, ‘Do not be afraid, nor grieve! We shall deliver you and your family, except your wife: she will be one of those who remain behind.
إِنَّا مُنزِلُونَ عَلَىٰٓ أَهْلِ هَٰذِهِ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ رِجْزًۭا مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْسُقُونَ
We are indeed going to bring down upon the people of this town a punishment from the sky because of the transgressions they used to commit.’
وَلَقَد تَّرَكْنَا مِنْهَآ ءَايَةًۢ بَيِّنَةًۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يَعْقِلُونَ
Certainly We have left of it a manifest sign for people who exercise their reason.
وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًۭا فَقَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَٱرْجُوا۟ ٱلْيَوْمَ ٱلْءَاخِرَ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ
And to Midian We sent Shu‘ayb, their brother. He said, ‘O my people! Worship Allah, and expect [to encounter] the Last Day, and do not act wickedly on the earth causing corruption.’
فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ فِى دَارِهِمْ جَٰثِمِينَ
But they impugned him, whereupon the earthquake seized them, and they lay lifeless prostrate in their homes.
وَعَادًۭا وَثَمُودَا۟ وَقَد تَّبَيَّنَ لَكُم مِّن مَّسَٰكِنِهِمْ ۖ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ أَعْمَٰلَهُمْ فَصَدَّهُمْ عَنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَكَانُوا۟ مُسْتَبْصِرِينَ
And ‘Ad and Thamud, [whose fate] is evident to you from their habitations. Satan made their deeds seem decorous to them, thus he barred them from the way [of Allah], though they used to be perceptive.
وَقَٰرُونَ وَفِرْعَوْنَ وَهَٰمَٰنَ ۖ وَلَقَدْ جَآءَهُم مُّوسَىٰ بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ فَٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ سَٰبِقِينَ
And Korah, Pharaoh, and Haman. Certainly, Moses brought them manifest proofs, but they acted arrogantly in the land; though they could not outmaneuver [Allah].
فَكُلًّا أَخَذْنَا بِذَنۢبِهِۦ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِ حَاصِبًۭا وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَخَذَتْهُ ٱلصَّيْحَةُ وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ خَسَفْنَا بِهِ ٱلْأَرْضَ وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَغْرَقْنَا ۚ وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيَظْلِمَهُمْ وَلَٰكِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
So We seized each [of them] for his sin: among them were those upon whom We unleashed a rain of stones, and among them were those who were seized by the Cry, and among them were those whom We caused the earth to swallow, and among them were those whom We drowned. It was not Allah who wronged them, but it was they who used to wrong themselves.
مَثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ أَوْلِيَآءَ كَمَثَلِ ٱلْعَنكَبُوتِ ٱتَّخَذَتْ بَيْتًۭا ۖ وَإِنَّ أَوْهَنَ ٱلْبُيُوتِ لَبَيْتُ ٱلْعَنكَبُوتِ ۖ لَوْ كَانُوا۟ يَعْلَمُونَ
The parable of those who take guardians instead of Allah is that of the spider that takes a home, and indeed the frailest of homes is the home of a spider, had they known!
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِۦ مِن شَىْءٍۢ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
Allah indeed knows whatever thing they invoke besides Him, and He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.
وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَمْثَٰلُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ ۖ وَمَا يَعْقِلُهَآ إِلَّا ٱلْعَٰلِمُونَ
We draw these parables for mankind; but no one grasps them except those who have knowledge.
خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ بِٱلْحَقِّ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَءَايَةًۭ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Allah created the heavens and the earth with consummate wisdom. There is indeed a sign in that for the faithful.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulated from Ṭabarsī's Majmaʿ al-Bayān [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], al-Qummī [qummi], al-Ṭūsī's al-Tibyān [tusi_al_tibyan], al-Baḥrānī's al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan], al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī's al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan], and the published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. All five Arabic sources are present for this passage.
Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] is flagged
needs_human_review: it arrives as two coarse units (covering 14–40 and 41–55); only the 31–40 and 41–44 portions were translated and the long verse-by-verse Arabic excursuses were faithfully condensed (e.g. the multi-page parsing of mā in 29:42 and the entire 29:45-onward al-Ṣalāt discourse were trimmed as out-of-passage), so a reviewer should confirm nothing material was lost.
What the passage says. Angel-messengers bring Abraham glad tidings (of Isaac, and Jacob beyond him), then announce they will destroy the wrongdoing town; Abraham pleads "Lot is in it"; they pledge to save Lot and his household except his wife (29:31–32). They come to Lot, who is distressed, and reassure him before bringing down "a punishment from the sky" (rijz), leaving "a manifest sign for people who reason" (29:33–35). The sūra then telescopes Shuʿayb/Madyan, ʿĀd and Thamūd (Satan adorned their deeds), and Qārūn/Pharaoh/Hāmān, each seized by one of four modes — sandstorm (ḥāṣib), the Blast (ṣayḥa), being swallowed by earth (khasf), drowning (gharaq) — "God wronged them not" (29:36–40). Then the sūra's namesake: those who take guardians (awliyāʾ) besides God are like the spider — and the frailest of houses is the spider's house (29:41); God knows what they invoke (29:42); none grasp the parables except those who know (29:43); God created the heavens and earth in truth (29:44). The frailest-house wording (awhana l-buyūt) was web-verified.
The reading and the grammar. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] both open with the qirāʾāt: the light vs. doubled forms of la-nunjiyannahu / munjūka / munzilūn, citing Abū ʿAlī's warrants (29:24's fa-anjāhu vs. 41:18's najjaynā). Ṭabarsī also preserves the yāʾ/tāʾ dispute over yadʿūna (29:42); al-Ṭūsī adds the morphology of ʿankabūt.
Abraham's plea — a key divergence. The Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary] frames "Lot is in it" as a request for reassurance about Lot's safety, and explicitly disputes al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan], by contrast, argues Abraham well knew God never punishes a sent prophet; he was interceding for the people of the town as an honoring of Lot — anchored in Hūd 74–76 ("he disputed with Us concerning the people of Lot"), web-verified as faithfully represented. al-Mīzān's baḥth riwāʾī reinforces it with the al-Kāfī ḥadīth in which Abraham bargains the angels down from a hundred believers to one, al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī glossing that Abraham "was seeking to preserve them."
The four modes of destruction — sources disagree on assignment. This is the sharpest inter-source divergence, and each is rendered as-attributed. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] assign ḥāṣib→people of Lot (or ʿĀd), ṣayḥa→Thamūd and Shuʿayb's people, khasf→Qārūn, gharaq→Noah's people and Pharaoh. al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Baḥrānī [bahrani_al_burhan] carry a distinct set: ḥāṣib→Lot, ṣayḥa→Shuʿayb and Ṣāliḥ, khasf→the people of Hūd (not Qārūn), gharaq→Pharaoh. al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] keeps khasf→Qārūn and notes that Madyan was struck by both the Blast and the quake (harmonizing Hūd 94 with 29:37) — web-verified. All sources read 29:40's closing as a refutation of the Compulsionists (al-Jabr/al-Mujbira): God's justice forbids punishing a servant for an act compelled upon him — a point al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī make the centerpiece of their gloss.
The spider parable. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] gives the richest reading: the spider's house "has nothing of a home but its name" — and so the wilāya of false guardians is name-only; he extends the parable (by its generality) to anyone who leans on a patron besides God as independently effective, exempting only patronage that reverts to God's ("like the patronage of the Messenger, the Imāms, and the believers"). Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and al-Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] stress walī as more emphatic than nāṣir. al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Baḥrānī [bahrani_al_burhan] report a Shīʿī taʾwīl — as-attributed — that the spider's web is the one spun over the Cave of Thawr at the Hijra; al-Baḥrānī further carries a narration glossing "the spider's house" as al-Ḥumayrāʾ (a polemical epithet of ʿĀʾisha; reported strictly as the source's narration, web-confirmed as a recognized epithet). For 29:43 "those who know," al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī report al-ʿālimūn = Āl Muḥammad / "We are they" (the Imāms) — as-attributed — whereas Ṭabarsī and al-Mīzān cite the al-Wāḥidī/Jābir ḥadīth that the ʿālim is "he who reasons on God's authority." On 29:44 all converge: creation "in truth" negates vain play, and the parable rests on demonstrative reality, not poetry.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.