Al-'Ankabut · Makki · ayah 33 of 69

Al-'Ankabut 29:33

وَلَمَّآ أَن جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَا لُوطًا سِىٓءَ بِهِمْ وَضَاقَ بِهِمْ ذَرْعًا وَقَالُوا۟ لَا تَخَفْ وَلَا تَحْزَنْ ۖ إِنَّا مُنَجُّوكَ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلَّا ٱمْرَأَتَكَ كَانَتْ مِنَ ٱلْغَـٰبِرِينَ

“And when Our messengers [i.e., angels] came to Lot, he was distressed for them and felt for them great discomfort.[1132] They said, "Fear not, nor grieve. Indeed, we will save you and your family, except your wife; she is to be of those who remain behind.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The envoys reach Lut, whose arms feel too short to shield them, and tell him not to fear or grieve: his household will be saved.

A reflection

When your arms will not reach around it

Wa-ḍāqa bihim dharʿan: and his dharʿ grew narrow on their account. It is one of the Quran's most physical pictures of being overwhelmed.

The dhirāʿ is the forearm, and dharʿ is measuring by it: cloth, a wall, a field. The lexicons explain the idiom from there. A man with a long arm reaches what a short-armed man cannot. So a wide dharʿ meant capacity, and a narrow one meant a task bigger than you. One lexicon defines the phrase exactly: he took on more than he could bear, and fell short.

Lut had guests at his door, young and handsome, and he knew his town. His arms were simply not long enough to go round them.

Picture a father on a packed station platform when a train is cancelled and the crowd surges. He has three children. He gets one hand on the youngest's hood and an arm round the middle one. The eldest is a step away, then two, carried along by the crowd. His reach ends exactly where his fear begins.

The same lexicon holds one more detail, almost hidden. When a bearer of good news signalled from afar with his arm, they said he dharaʿa. The men whose arrival made Lut's arm too short had just come from Ibrahim as bearers of good news. The arm that could not reach around them was about to learn it did not need to.

That is the shape of many of our worst hours. We measure the danger by the length of our own arm. We forget that our reach was never what held everything together.

The Prophet ﷺ spoke of Lut in this very trial, as both Sahihs record. May Allah have mercy on Lut; he was taking refuge in a strong support. When your arm runs short, remember whose does not.

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.