كَذَّبَت قَومُ لوطٍ بِالنُّذُرِ

And the people of Lot denied the warnings.

EXEGESIS

This verse is similar to verse 23 which mentioned how the people of Thamūd denied their warnings (see verse 23 for a more detailed discussion about the linguistics related to this verse).

As mentioned previously, nudhur can mean warnings. The plural form indicates that they continuously and successively denied the many warnings given to them by various prophets. Or it could mean that they rejected the message of the prophets since they all came with one message and thus rejecting one is equivalent to rejecting all (see 26:160).

The verse mentions them as the people of Lot and does not give them any proper name as was the case with ʿĀd and Thamūd. This may be because they did not have a special name that the Arabs knew them by, and thus they are simply known by the name of the prophet sent to them.[1]

EXPOSITION

This is the fourth community discussed in this chapter, who rejected their prophet and thus faced a terrible ending. Prophet Lot (a) was a relative of Prophet Ibrahim (a), and migrated with him to the blessed land (29:26), and thereafter settled in the city of Sodom in present-day Jordan.[2] His people performed the worst acts and did not listen to his commands. In return, they threatened him and turned away from him. The Quran has discussed the story of Prophet Lot (a) and his people in detail in various chapters. For example, 7:80-84 describes them in the following manner: And Lot, when he said to his people: ‘What! Do you commit an outrage none in the world ever committed before you?! Indeed you come to men with desire instead of women! Rather you are a profligate lot.’ But the only answer of his people was that they said: ‘Expel them from your town! They are indeed a puritanical lot.’ So We delivered him and his family, except his wife; she was one of those who remained behind. Then We poured down upon them a rain [of stones]. So observe how was the fate of the guilty!

For more details regarding Prophet Lot (a) and his people, see 11:77-83, 15:57-77, 26:160-73, 27:54-58, and 29:28-35.

In this chapter their story begins by mentioning how they denied the warnings without giving any details about their wrongdoings, nor does it discuss how exactly they rejected their prophet. The next set of verses discusses their punishment only. Perhaps this is because the main purpose of this chapter is to warn the polytheists of Mecca against turning away from the signs and miracles of God that they witnessed.

[1] Ibn Ashur, 27/194.
[2] Munyah, 27/213.