Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 171 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:171

إِلَّا عَجُوزًا فِى ٱلْغَـٰبِرِينَ

“Except an old woman[1058] among those who remained behind.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The rescue took Lut's whole household but one: a wife who shared his roof, but not his faith, and stayed with what was ending.

A reflection

A prophet's roof is not a shelter

Lut prayed, My Lord, save me and my family from what they do (26:169). The answer came: So We saved him and his family, all of them. Then this ayah: except an old woman.

She was not a stranger to the message. She lived in the house where it was spoken every day. She ate at the table of a messenger of Allah. She heard his warnings before anyone in the town did. And none of that carried her out.

The Quran makes the point openly elsewhere. Allah sets forth the wives of Nuh and Lut as an example for those who disbelieve. They were under two righteous servants, and their husbands availed them nothing against Allah (66:10). In the same passage, Pharaoh's wife is held up for the believers (66:11). The worst man of his age could not drag her down. The best men of theirs could not lift these two up.

Picture a young man in a small town. His grandfather built the local mosque with his own hands. At every Eid, the old men greet him as 'Hajji's grandson' and press his hand warmly. He has not prayed since he left school. Somewhere inside, he half-assumes the name will cover him. The family did the praying; he inherits the credit.

This ayah removes that assumption gently and completely. Faith does not pass through walls or through surnames. It is not absorbed from a spouse, a parent or a teacher. A household can be full of light and one heart in it can stay dark.

The question is not whose house you live in. It is what you have done with what you heard there.

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.