80 Preface وَلوطًا إِذ قالَ لِقَومِهِ أَتَأتونَ الفاحِشَةَ ما سَبَقَكُم بِها مِن أَحَدٍ مِنَ العالَمينَYusuf AliWe also (sent) Lut:1 He said to his people: “Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you?Lut is the Lot of the English Bible. His story is biblical, but freed from some shameful features which are a blot on the biblical narrative, (e.g., see Gen. 19:30- 36 and n. 1575 to 11:78). He was a nephew of Abraham, and was sent as a Prophet and warner to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities utterly destroyed for their unspeakable sins. They cannot be exactly located, but it may be supposed that they were somewhere in the plain east of the Dead Sea. The story of their destruction is told in the 19th chapter of Genesis. Two angels in the shape of handsome young men came to Lot in the evening and became his guests by night. The inhabitants of Sodom in their lust for unnatural crime invaded Lot’s house but were repulsed. In the morning, the angels warned Lot to escape with his family. “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:24- 26). Note that Lut’s people are the people to whom he is sent on a mission. He was not one of their own brethren, as was Salihor Shu'ayb. But he looked upon his people as his brethren (50:13), as a man of God always does.