Tafsir of Hud 11:81

"They said, 'O Lot...'"

When the angels saw the distress Lot was suffering, they said: "O Lot, your support is indeed strong. 'We are the messengers of your Lord; they will not reach you.' So open the door and leave us and them [to deal with each other]."

He opened the door and they entered. Gabriel (peace be upon him) sought permission from his Lord to punish them, and He granted it. He stood in his true form, spread his wings—he has two wings, and upon him was a sash of strung pearls, and his front teeth were radiant—and he struck their faces with his wing, obliterating their eyes and blinding them, as God Almighty said: "So We obliterated their eyes." They began to wander, unable to find the path, crying out: "Escape! Escape! For in Lot’s house are sorcerers."

"They will not reach you" is a clause clarifying the one before it; for if they are the messengers of God, they [the people of Sodom] will not reach him nor be able to harm him.

• "So set out" (fa-asri): Read both with the hamzat al-qat‘ and hamzat al-wasl.
• "Except your wife" (illa imra’atuka): Read both in the nominative (raf‘) and the accusative (nasb).

It is narrated that Lot asked them: "When is the time of their destruction?" They replied: "The morning." He said: "I wish for it to be sooner than that." They replied: "Is the morning not near?" (Also read as al-subuh with two dammahs).

If you ask: What is the basis for the reading of "Except your wife" in the accusative? I say: It is an exception from His saying: "So set out with your family." The evidence for this is the reading of ‘Abdullah [ibn Mas‘ud]: "So set out with your family in a portion of the night, except your wife." It is also possible that it is in the accusative because of the prohibition "do not look back," following the principle of exception, even though the most eloquent form is the substitution (badal)—meaning the reading in the nominative, where it is a substitute for "one" [from "none of your family"].

Regarding her departure with his family, there are two narrations:

1. It is narrated that he took her with them, and he was commanded that none of them should look back except her. When she heard the rumbling of the punishment, she looked back and said: "O my people!" A stone struck her and killed her.
2. It is narrated that he was commanded to leave her behind with her people, for her inclination was toward them, so he did not take her with him. The difference in the two readings corresponds to the difference in these two narrations.

"So when Our command came, We made its highest part its lowest, and We rained upon it stones of layered baked clay, marked from your Lord. And it is not far from the wrongdoers."