An-Naml · Makki · ayah 54 of 93

An-Naml 27:54

وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِۦٓ أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلْفَـٰحِشَةَ وَأَنتُمْ تُبْصِرُونَ

“And [mention] Lot, when he said to his people, "Do you commit immorality[1081] while you are seeing?[1082]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Lūṭ does not lecture his people; he asks one question, and its sting is in the last word: you are doing this with open eyes.

A reflection

Reading the blood on the ground, and walking on

A mountain guide leads a group across a snow slope in spring. She knows the signs. A crack running across the surface, a fresh slide on the next slope, the hollow sound under her boots. She reads every one of them correctly. Then she leads the group across anyway, because they are behind schedule.

That is the weight of Lūṭ's last two words. Wa-antum tubṣirūn: while you see. The commentaries take this first as the sight of the heart. You know full well that it is a foul act. One early commentator adds: you know no people before you ever did it.

The root of tubṣirūn gives the image. The Arabs said a puppy baṣṣara when it first opened its eyes. A baṣīra was a spot of blood on the ground. The hunter read it to find where his wounded quarry had gone. So baṣīra came to mean evidence, and the inner sight that reads it.

Lūṭ's people had the evidence, and they could read it. That is what makes his question so heavy. One commentary says it directly: committing an ugly act while knowing its ugliness is uglier still. Ignorance can soften a wrong. Clear sight takes the softening away.

This is not only about an ancient town. Most of our worst choices are not made in confusion. We read the signs, we know what they mean, and we cross the slope anyway. The diet we know is harming us. The conversation we know will wound. The habit we know is eating our prayer.

The Quran's question to such moments is Lūṭ's. Not 'did you know?' You did. The question is why your knowing did not stop you.

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.