Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 74 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:74

وَلُوطًا ءَاتَيْنَـٰهُ حُكْمًا وَعِلْمًا وَنَجَّيْنَـٰهُ مِنَ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ ٱلَّتِى كَانَت تَّعْمَلُ ٱلْخَبَـٰٓئِثَ ۗ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ قَوْمَ سَوْءٍ فَـٰسِقِينَ

“And to Lot We gave judgement and knowledge, and We saved him from the city that was committing wicked deeds. Indeed, they were a people of evil, defiantly disobedient.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In a town that had burst out of every restraint, Allah gave one man the bridle of wisdom, and then brought him out whole.

A reflection

Wisdom is a channel, not a spring

Wa Lūṭan ātaynāhu ḥukman wa ʿilman: and Lut, We gave him judgement and knowledge. The verb is ātā, to give. Its root pictures water running easily down a channel to the pool. The Arabs called a torrent running its course atiyy, and a channel carrying water to the pool the same. These are established usages. So what Lut had flowed to him. He was the pool, not the spring.

One great commentator notes that both nouns, ḥukm and ʿilm, come without "the" and with the ending that signals greatness. Not "some judgement and some knowledge", but judgement and knowledge of a high order. And both were received.

Picture a young software engineer, two years out of university. One Friday she finds the cause of a fault that has defeated her whole team for a month. Everyone is grateful. By the following week something has shifted in her. She answers questions a little too quickly, sighs when colleagues are slow, and starts to think of herself as the clever one. The fix was real. The pride is the problem.

The ayah quietly dismantles that pride. Whatever insight, judgement or knowledge any of us has, it ran down to us. The sharpest mind is a channel someone else dug. Our ego wants to claim the water as our own spring. The verb refuses.

A reader might ask why Allah keeps saying "We gave", as if He wanted the credit. He needs nothing from us, including our thanks. But we need the truth about where our gifts come from. A person who knows their wisdom was given holds it lightly, shares it freely and is not crushed when it fails them. That is the gift inside the gift.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.