وَالمُؤتَفِكَةَ أَهوىٰ

And He overthrew the town that was overturned.

EXEGESIS

Muʾtafikah (the overturned) means that which has been turned upside down (munqalibah). A lie is called ifk since it turns the truth upside down. It is here referring to a city which faced a great upheaval, a calamity that ruptured it, turning it upside down.^{‎[1]Tibyan, 9/439.}

The town being spoken of is probably for genus, referring to more than one town including the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah.^{‎[2]Māwardī gives the names of the cities as: Ṣibghah, Ṣaghīrah, ʿAmarah, Dūmā, and Sadūm, saying the latter was the biggest (Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, 5/406).} It has been used in plural in 9:70 and 69:9. These were the cities of the people of Prophet Lot (a), which Gabriel razed to the ground.^{‎[3]Tibyan, 9/439; Tabari, 27/47; Nemuneh, 22/570.} The description of their destruction in Sūrah Hūd fits this: We made its topmost part its nethermost, and We rained on it stones of laminar shale (11:82).^{‎[4]In this regard see also T. E. Bunch, M. A. LeCompte, A. V. Adedeji, et al., ‘A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea’, in Sci Rep 11, 18632 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3.} It is called muʾtafikah because God overthrew (ahwā) it.^{‎[5]Razi, 29/284.} It is also possible that it is speaking generally of all the various cities that were visited by the punishment of God.^{‎[6]Tabari, 27/47; Qurtubi, 17/121; Mizan, 19/50.}

The subject of the verb overthrew should be God, or it could be Gabriel, who did it by the command of God.^{‎[7]Tibyan, 9/439; Tabrisi, 9/277; Tabari, 27/47; Thalabi, 9/157; Zamakhshari, 4/429; Muhit, 10/28.}

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. In some reports from Imam Ali (a) after the battle of Jamal, which is also known as the battle of Basra, he addresses the people of Basra as the ahl al-muʾtafikah, and jund al-marʾah (legion of the woman), describing the upheaval that took place there.^{‎[8]Nur, 5/172-173. The same is reported from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a).} This is a type of application of the verse (taṭbīq), and not exegesis (tafsīr).^{‎[9]Nemuneh, 22/571.} Certainly, the concept of ifk is also applicable to those who opposed Imam Ali (a) and fought against him on the basis of unfounded claims.

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly lives.^{‎[10]2 Peter 2:6.}

[1] Tibyan, 9/439.
[2] Māwardī gives the names of the cities as: Ṣibghah, Ṣaghīrah, ʿAmarah, Dūmā, and Sadūm, saying the latter was the biggest (Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, 5/406).
[3] Tibyan, 9/439; Tabari, 27/47; Nemuneh, 22/570.
[4] In this regard see also T. E. Bunch, M. A. LeCompte, A. V. Adedeji, et al., ‘A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea’, in Sci Rep 11, 18632 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3.
[5] Razi, 29/284.
[6] Tabari, 27/47; Qurtubi, 17/121; Mizan, 19/50.
[7] Tibyan, 9/439; Tabrisi, 9/277; Tabari, 27/47; Thalabi, 9/157; Zamakhshari, 4/429; Muhit, 10/28.
[8] Nur, 5/172-173. The same is reported from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a).
[9] Nemuneh, 22/571.
[10] 2 Peter 2:6.