Tafsir of Hud 11:78

{يهرعون} (They came rushing): They hasten as if they are being driven forward by force.

{ومن قبل كانوا يعملون السيئات} (And before this, they used to commit evil deeds): Before that time, they used to commit abominations and multiply them. They became accustomed to them, practiced them, and found them less repulsive. That is why they came rushing openly, unrestrained by shame. It is also said that the meaning is: Lot knew their habit of committing abominations before that time.

{هاؤلآء بناتى} (These are my daughters): He intended to protect his guests with his daughters, which is the pinnacle of generosity. He meant: "These are my daughters, so marry them." At that time, the marriage of Muslim women to disbelievers was permissible, just as the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) married his two daughters to ‘Utbah ibn Abi Lahab and Abu al-‘As ibn Wa’il before the revelation, while they were disbelievers. It is also said that they had two leaders who were obeyed, so he intended to marry his two daughters to them.

Ibn Marwan read {هن أطهر لكم} (They are purer for you) in the accusative case (nasb). Sibawayh weakened this, saying: "Ibn Marwan has sat firmly in his grammatical error." Abu ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ala’ said: "Whoever reads hunna athar in the accusative has sat cross-legged in his error." This is because its accusative state would imply it is a state (hal) governed by the verbal meaning inherent in ha’ula’i (these), similar to the verse: {هذا بعلي شيخا} (This is my husband, an old man). Or, ha’ula’i is in the accusative due to an implied verb, as if to say: "Take these," with banati being a substitute (badal), and this implied verb governs the hal. Hunna would then be a separator (fasl), which is not permissible because a separator is restricted to occurring between the two parts of a nominal sentence, not between a hal and the one it describes. A way to justify it without ha’ula’i being a separator is to consider ha’ula’i the subject (mubtada’) and banati hunna a sentence in the place of the predicate, like saying: "This is my brother, he is," and athar would be the hal.

{فاتقوا الله} (So fear Allah): By preferring them over the guests.

{ولا تخزون في ضيفي} (And do not disgrace me regarding my guests): Do not shame me or expose me—from khizy (disgrace)—or do not embarrass me—from khazayah (shame). It means: do not disgrace me regarding my guests, for if a man’s guest or neighbor is disgraced, the man himself is disgraced. This is from the depth of generosity and the essence of chivalry.

{أليس منكم رجل رشيد} (Is there not among you a man of right conduct?): A single man who is guided to the path of truth, the performance of good, and refraining from evil. It is also recited as la tukhzun (without the ya).

It is possible that offering his daughters was an exaggeration in his humility toward them and a display of his intense distress at what they were doing to him, hoping that they would feel ashamed and soften toward him when they heard this, and thus leave his guests alone—despite the fact that it was established knowledge for him and for them that there was no marriage between him and them.

{قالوا لقد علمت ما لنا في بناتك من حق} (They said: "You know well that we have no right to your daughters"): They testified to his own knowledge, meaning: "You know we do not desire marriage with them, and this is merely a superficial offer." It is also said that because they adopted the practice of sodomy as a way of life and a religion, they believed it was the truth and that marriage to women was falsehood. Therefore, they said: "We have no right to your daughters at all," because marriage to women was outside the path they were on. It is also possible they said this out of insolence, intending to deny any desire for them.

{لتعلم ما نريد} (You know what we want): They meant the act of sodomy and the desire they had for it.

{قال لو أن لي بكم قوة أو آوي إلى ركن شديد} (He said: "If only I had strength against you, or could take refuge in a powerful support!")