Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 161 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:161

إِذْ قَالَ لَهُمْ أَخُوهُمْ لُوطٌ أَلَا تَتَّقُونَ

“When their brother Lot said to them, "Will you not fear Allāh?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Lut opens with the call every messenger in this surah makes, said by a man who came from elsewhere and became the town's brother.

A reflection

A brother by settling, not by birth

This line was first heard from Nuh at 26:106, and it returns for each messenger in the surah. Here only one word needs a second look: akhūhum, their brother.

By the classical accounts, Lut was not born among these people. He was the nephew of Ibrahim, and he was sent to this town in Ibrahim's lifetime. Elsewhere the Quran records that Lut believed in Ibrahim, and that one of them said, I am emigrating to my Lord (29:26). So he came to this town from somewhere else.

Yet the Quran still calls him their brother. One concise commentary takes it as kinship of lineage. Another notes that they were his in-laws: he had married into them. Either way, he had joined his life to theirs.

That makes the call heavier, not lighter. The man telling them to guard themselves with Allah was not a visitor passing judgement on strangers. He lived with them and was tied to them. Whatever was coming would come to his own relatives.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.