29 Preface أَئِنَّكُم لَتَأتونَ الرِّجالَ وَتَقطَعونَ السَّبيلَ وَتَأتونَ في ناديكُمُ المُنكَرَ ۖ فَما كانَ جَوابَ قَومِهِ إِلّا أَن قالُوا ائتِنا بِعَذابِ اللَّهِ إِن كُنتَ مِنَ الصّادِقينَYusuf Ali“Do ye indeed approach men, and cut off the highway?-1 and practise wickedness (even) in your councils?” But his people gave no answer but this: they said: “Bring us the Wrath of God if thou tellest the truth.”2They infested highways and committed their horrible crimes not only secretly, but openly and publicly, even in their assemblies. Some Commentators understand “cutting off the highway” to refer to highway robberies; this is possible, and it is also possible that the crimes in their assemblies may have been injustice, rowdiness, etc. But the context seems to refer to their own special horrible crime, and the point here seems to be that they were not ashamed of it and that they practised it publicly. Degradation could go no further.This is another instance of their effrontery, in addition to that mentioned in 7:82: the two supplement each other. Here the point emphasised is that they did not believe in God or His Punishment, and dared God’s Prophet Lut to bring about the Punishment if he could. And it did come and destroy them.