Last night, while studying the Quran with a friend,
I noticed something strange. If we study surah Al-A'raf, surah Hud and
and surah Asy-Syu'ara, we will find that there is a section in the surah
with repeated phrases about the prophets of old and their message. The
ones common to all of them are Nuh, Hud, Soleh, Lut and Syuaib.
Now in surah Al-A'raf and Hud, you will notice that the usual pattern of verses when Allah speaks about the prophets stops for a while at the story of Lut, and the same pattern continues again after him when Syuaib is introduced. Each of the prophets apart from Lut was introduced as a brother to their people and they spoke the same words i.e. worship Allah for you have no deity worthy of worship except for Him. Then they rebuke their people for the specific sins they were involved in. Lut however is not given that kind of introduction. Allah narrates his story without mentioning his brotherhood to his people but jumps straight into his rebuking them for their filthy crime of sodomy. Two things are different here. His brotherhood to them is not emphasized, and there is no mention about worshiping one God alone. Their sin of sodomy was so great, Allah did not even bother to mention the main message all prophets came with that is the call to Monotheism, and instead jumped straight into the evil of their crime. It is as if Allah wanted to say, the sin of sodomy is comparable to the sin of worshiping other Gods besides Allah, which we know is the greatest sin of all. And since the sin of sodomy is mentioned straight away, Allah did not introduce Lut as the brother of his people because it would be inappropriate to say he was the brother of a people who were indulging in filth.
Now in surah Asy-Syu'ara however, he is introduced as a brother to his people, just like the other prophets, and if we look closely we will see that his initial words to them are about fearing Allah and obeying him as a messenger. Only after that their sin of sodomy is mentioned. So mentioning their brotherhood to him in this context is appropriate because his preaching to them does not start off with their filthy actions, but with the message of obedience to God.
How miraculously consistent is the Quran. A man would not be able to write a story with this sort of precision. The mood of each surah dictates the way the story is told. Lut was of course a brother to his people (which also proves that, we are all brothers in humanity regardless of how we feel about the 'other' person's vileness), but he was only introduced as such in a context where their filth was not mentioned first i.e. in surah Asy-Syuara'. It is not fitting that he should be mentioned as their brother in the contexts in the other two suras given his high status. The versions in the first two suras mentioned also remind us about the enormity of the sin of sodomy, and thus we should not view it lightly, especially in our times when all filth is considered normal and encouraged even.
Wal'iyazubillah.
p/s: Nuh too is not called a brother in the 2 suras but that's because he is the 1st in the list, and has a different introduction. But his message is still the same as the others. Lut is the only exception.
And Allah knows best.
Now in surah Al-A'raf and Hud, you will notice that the usual pattern of verses when Allah speaks about the prophets stops for a while at the story of Lut, and the same pattern continues again after him when Syuaib is introduced. Each of the prophets apart from Lut was introduced as a brother to their people and they spoke the same words i.e. worship Allah for you have no deity worthy of worship except for Him. Then they rebuke their people for the specific sins they were involved in. Lut however is not given that kind of introduction. Allah narrates his story without mentioning his brotherhood to his people but jumps straight into his rebuking them for their filthy crime of sodomy. Two things are different here. His brotherhood to them is not emphasized, and there is no mention about worshiping one God alone. Their sin of sodomy was so great, Allah did not even bother to mention the main message all prophets came with that is the call to Monotheism, and instead jumped straight into the evil of their crime. It is as if Allah wanted to say, the sin of sodomy is comparable to the sin of worshiping other Gods besides Allah, which we know is the greatest sin of all. And since the sin of sodomy is mentioned straight away, Allah did not introduce Lut as the brother of his people because it would be inappropriate to say he was the brother of a people who were indulging in filth.
Now in surah Asy-Syu'ara however, he is introduced as a brother to his people, just like the other prophets, and if we look closely we will see that his initial words to them are about fearing Allah and obeying him as a messenger. Only after that their sin of sodomy is mentioned. So mentioning their brotherhood to him in this context is appropriate because his preaching to them does not start off with their filthy actions, but with the message of obedience to God.
How miraculously consistent is the Quran. A man would not be able to write a story with this sort of precision. The mood of each surah dictates the way the story is told. Lut was of course a brother to his people (which also proves that, we are all brothers in humanity regardless of how we feel about the 'other' person's vileness), but he was only introduced as such in a context where their filth was not mentioned first i.e. in surah Asy-Syuara'. It is not fitting that he should be mentioned as their brother in the contexts in the other two suras given his high status. The versions in the first two suras mentioned also remind us about the enormity of the sin of sodomy, and thus we should not view it lightly, especially in our times when all filth is considered normal and encouraged even.
Wal'iyazubillah.
p/s: Nuh too is not called a brother in the 2 suras but that's because he is the 1st in the list, and has a different introduction. But his message is still the same as the others. Lut is the only exception.
And Allah knows best.
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