Lut was the nephew of Abraham, his father Haran died when Lut was still very young so Abraham adopted him as a son and brought him up. Lut was born in Ur; an ancient city of Iraq. Abraham also lived there. Lut was given prophet hood in Egypt. He had big black eyes, golden complexion with medium stature. He was a farmer.
Lut performed many miracles. Whenever he used to pray for rain, the sky would become clouded, and it rained. When he slept using a stone as pillow the stone would have an impression of his head on it.
The first to believe Abraham was Lut and Sara. There were green valleys in the southern part of the Dead Sea between Eastern Jordan and Palestine. This area had two inhabitations called Sodom and Gomorrah. People were prosperous because of their fertile lands and lush green fields and pastures. Fruits of all kinds and vegetables of all sorts were available in abundance and they enjoyed every comfort and luxury known in those times.
But, they had forgotten about God, their Lord and had become haughty and few clever ones possessed means created for all. When the people from other areas visited there, they tortured them and plundered their belongings declaring them to be persona-non-grata and undesirable. Instead of taking the bounties as favors of God, they took them as earnings of their mind and sweat and had no feeling of gratitude for their Lord God.
Satan, the rejected one, is the eternal enemy of man, always endeavors to misguide and mislead man. High headedness, false vanity and pride and rebellion against the laws of God are the traits of satanic approach of thinking. People of Sodom had submitted completely to this pattern of thinking approach and had surrendered to greed, lust, jealousy, wealth worshipping and hurting the feelings of others and torturing the weaker for their pleasure and gain had become their second nature. Evil had been the norm of their lives, and they had completely detached them from positive thinking.
Satan had led them to such a state of perversion that for satisfaction of their sexual urges, instead of going for females, they preferred the males.
أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ وَتَقْطَعُونَ السَّبِيلَ وَتَأْتُونَ فِي نَادِيكُمُ الْمُنْكَرَ
“Do ye indeed approach men, and cut off the highway? And practice lewdness even in your councils?”
(S: 29, V: 29)
وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ أَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُمْ بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِنَ الْعَالَمِينَ
We also sent Lut: He said to his people: “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation ever committed before you?”
(S: 7, V: 80)
They had become so obstinate in their shameful activities that they did all that openly and performed their heinous activities in front of people’s gatherings.
وَلُوطًا آتَيْنَاهُ حُكْمًا وَعِلْمًا وَنَجَّيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَتْ تَعْمَلُ الْخَبَائِثَ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمَ سَوْءٍ فَاسِقِينَ
We saved him from the town, which practiced abominations: truly they were a people given to Evil, a rebellious people.
(S: 21, V: 74)
God sent Lut towards them for guidance. He advised them to refrain from evil practices and tempted them to come towards light after getting out of the darkness of the ignorance and misdeeds. But, the people who were so engrossed in their lusts and pursuit of carnal desires detested his advices and hated him for forbidding them from their brazen lustfulness.
بَلْ أَنْتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُسْرِفُونَ وَمَا كَانَ جَوَابَ قَوْمِهِ إِلَّا أَنْ قَالُوا أَخْرِجُوهُمْ مِنْ قَرْيَتِكُمْ إِنَّهُمْ أُنَاسٌ يَتَطَهَّرُونَ
“For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” And his people gave no answer but this: they said, ”Drive them out of your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean, and pure!”
(S: 7, V: 82)
God had sent Lut on a mission, he kept on warning them against the eventual fate of their crimes and sins. Whenever Sodomies saw him they ridiculed him and tauntingly asked him, “If your God doesn’t like us and is angry with us then let’s see His wrath.”
When it was established that these people would not mend their ways and stubbornly keep on transgressing, he supplicated before God, “O my Lord, give me conquest over these mischievous people.” God acceded to his praying and the angels were given the task of exterminating them from the face of the earth for the good.
The angels deputed, first visited Abraham in human form and gave him the glad tiding of the birth of Isaac and told him about their assignment of extermination of the people of Sodom. Abraham being a kind man and good-natured person expressed his sorrow and said, “But some of them are the faithful.”
يَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ أَعْرِضْ عَنْ هَذَا إِنَّهُ قَدْ جَاءَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَ وَإِنَّهُمْ آتِيهِمْ عَذَابٌ غَيْرُ مَرْدُودٍ
The angels replied, “O Abraham! Seek not this. The decree of thy Lord hath gone forth: for them there cometh a penalty that cannot be turned back!”
(S: 11, V: 76)
When Abraham insisted that at least Lut do not deserve to be included in this infliction, the angels said,
إِنَّا مُنَجُّوكَ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا امْرَأَتَكَ كَانَتْ مِنَ الْغَابِرِينَ
“Fear thou not, nor grieve: we are here to save him and those following him, except his wife: she is of those who lag behind.”
(S: 29, V: 33)
Those angels came to Lut at night in human form of young lads. They introduced themselves as guests. Lut knew that if the people of Sodom would know of their presence in his house they would intrude. He got perturbed and was behaving cautiously. Lut’s wife seeing that angelic beauty of those youths informed the people about them. The people of Sodom gathered and demanded from Lut to hand over those young lads to them so they could gratify their evil desires with those whom he was hiding from them.
قَالَ إِنَّ هَٰؤُلَاءِ ضَيْفِي فَلَا تَفْضَحُونِ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَلَا تُخْزُونِ
Lut pleaded with them: saying: “These are my guests: disgrace me not: But fear God, and shame me not.”
(S: 15, V: 68-69)
He even offered them to have his young daughters instead of his guests. They told him not to come in their way and get aside. When Lut refused to let them get in, they said, ‘This man had come here to stay, we in our pity let him live here and now he is dictating his terms to us.’
Those brazen, unabashed and shameless people instead of listening to Lut’s pleadings attacked him and molested him mercilessly and they were close to the door to break it open when the angels pulled him in and shut the door and using their angelic powers blinded the people outside. The people on the other side of the door were not able to locate the door.
The angels consoled Lut and told him,
قَالُوا يَا لُوطُ إِنَّا رُسُلُ رَبِّكَ لَنْ يَصِلُوا إِلَيْكَ فَأَسْرِ بِأَهْلِكَ بِقِطْعٍ مِنَ اللَّيْلِ وَلَا يَلْتَفِتْ مِنْكُمْ أَحَدٌ إِلَّا امْرَأَتَكَ إِنَّهُ مُصِيبُهَا مَا أَصَابَهُمْ إِنَّ مَوْعِدَهُمُ الصُّبْحُ أَلَيْسَ الصُّبْحُ بِقَرِيبٍ
”O Lut! We are Messengers from thy Lord! By no means shall they reach thee. Now travel with thy family while yet a part of the night remains, and let not any of you look back: but thy wife will remain behind: To her will happen what happens to the people. Morning is their time appointed: Is not the morning nigh?”
(S: 11, V: 81)
Lut taking the members of his family, as was instructed by the angels, left Sodom in the darkness of the night and kept on traveling. At dawn when he reached a place known as Zoar, a stunning roar wrecked the nerves of the people of Sodom and brimstones started showering upon them and the entire inhabitation of Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated from the face of the earth forever. The place where Lut had reached remained safe from this disastrous destruction.
Rain of fire:
The story of this wrath is described in the Old Testament in these words:
“Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of the heaven, and He overthrew those cities and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground.”
(Genesis Ch 19, 24-25)
وَإِنَّهَا لَبِسَبِيلٍ مُقِيمٍ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
And, the cities were right on the high road. Behold! In this is a sign for those who believed.
(S: 15, V: 77)
وَلَقَدْ تَرَكْنَا مِنْهَا آيَةً بَيِّنَةً لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
And We have left thereof an evident Sign, for any people who care to understand.
(S: 29, V: 35)
AIDS
In the story of Lut an unnatural act of sexual gratification has been mentioned. God detested this unnatural act because it causes such diseases for mankind which prove to be harmful and disastrous for others.
God Almighty is Merciful to His creatures and loves them with a love that exceeds the sum of love of seventy mothers. When the people did not listen to His messengers and stubbornly insisted on destroying themselves through their moral turpitudes, God inflicted destruction upon them so that the rest of mankind and the coming generations could be saved from lethal infectious diseases like HIV AIDS.
Point to note
The moral of the story of Lut narrated in the Holy Books is that transgression always suffers an agonizing ending. Followers of Satan neither enjoy peace here nor have any share in the Hereafter. It is one of the laws of nature that no one can leave this world unless he is rewarded for his acts and deeds here. Can anyone claim that dishonesty and deceit have ever increased his joy? Can a person after eating rotten and putrid food stay healthy and remain safe from diseases, anxiety, and troubles? A good deed always has a happy ending and a bad deed ends up in destruction and humiliation.
When double standards and hypocrisy become the norm of a society that society always suffers disastrous destruction. Usually, we ignore an evil thing on the pretext of its pettiness but when that seemingly insignificant evil grows into a tree, every thorn, every colorless flower and every dry coarse leaf makes people cry, haunting the conscience with censures. Reprimands of a guilty conscience give rise to fatal diseases.
A diseased cell of the body becomes a colony. Just one infected single cell multiplies into a multitude of cells, besieges the entire body and turns into cancerous ailments and AIDS. Despite one’s efforts of safeguarding, one cannot avoid them. Vice and virtue, good and bad, are kinetic and living realities. The tree of virtue provides shade of mercy and bounties while the tree of evil bears fruits of fears, phobias, anxiety, sorrow, and grief.
Path of wrath
Anger, hatred, jealousy, animosity, extremism and lobbying are signs of a path leading to the wrath of God. This path leads towards false pride, stubbornness and self-interest and takes man away from his Lord. This passage is lost in darkness and gloom. One who walks along it faces winds of misery, grief and desolation. The traveler of this path is eventually disgraced even in his own sight. A cancerous boil erupts in the heart, the eyes are blinded, unable to distinguish right from wrong, and such people remain deprived of reality and the cognition of God.
Paradigm of thinking
Every act of man is based upon a thinking approach and the character of a person, a group, or a family is ascertained on the basis of their approach. History has recorded those who opposed and slew the apostles and prophets of God, as well as those who helped them, followed them, and adopted the patterns of thinking which they preached and demonstrated.
When the prophetic character is analyzed microscopically not a single trait is found that is not good or virtuous. In contrast, the character of those devoted to evil does not contain anything righteous. Thus every character is based upon two types of patterns, the godly type and the satanic type. One who adopts the godly type becomes an active participant in the kingdom of God. All approaches that take a person away from God are satanic approaches. One who follows the paradigm of prophets becomes a godly man, for prophets are representatives of God and they disseminate His attributes to those who follow their way of thinking. When a person turns away from the prophetic approach he strays onto paths filled with darkness and thorns.
Followers of the satanic paradigm remain overshadowed with grief and fears. At times they suffer from fatal diseases, at others they are overburdened with problems and find no way out. Uncertainty makes them whimsical, they cannot trust anyone. Restlessness stings them, insomnia robs them of sleep, blood pressure removes peace of mind. They doubt everyone, superstition haunts them, their homes become wilderness. In order to escape that wilderness they run towards social gatherings, only to find more people like themselves, which heightens their anxiety and restlessness.
Whereas people equipped with the prophetic paradigm of thinking enjoy peace of mind and heart. They live in tranquility and blissful ecstasy. Even the angel of death appears as a friend to them. Angels inspire delight by reminding them of the favors and bounties of God. They are versed in the art of detaching themselves from the short-lived material world. Their expectations are directed towards the Creator rather than the creatures of God.
They befriend the Lord of the worlds. Nature assists them in everything. Their life and death are for the sake of God. He protects them from the evil designs of the mischievous. They are blessed with the grace of witnessing God and enjoy the blissful certitude of a better life in the Hereafter. They know in their hearts that nothing is out of the reach of their Lord. When they spend, they do so with certainty that they are spending from what has been given to them by the Best Provider of sustenance.