Lut: Difference between revisions

The story of Lut is told in many different places in the Qur'an, which can be read [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Homosexuality|here]]. According to the Qur'an, Lut was a righteous prophet who was sent to preach the word of Allah to the sinful people of Sodom and Gomorrah. They repeatedly rejected his message and threatened him, until angels from Allah turned up at Lut's house. They bring him tidings of the destruction of the twin cities. The wicked people of Lut's cities then also show up at his house, demanding to rape the angels they believe are foreigners. Lut offers them his daughters in lawful Islamic marriage to them instead (which the mufassirun read as being the daughters of his nation, id est the females of the cities) but they refuse. In their drunkenness and blindness Lut is able to escape, and Allah destroys the cities with brimstone. The outline of the story is in some ways similar to the biblical original, but the story has some salient points which mark its importance in Islamic theology and separate it from its biblical progenitor:  

Lut's wife is accused by the Qur'an of complicity in the sin of his people. In the tafsir of ibn Kathir it is written:  

 

 

 

The Most High (Allah) tells of his servant Lut, peace be upon him, who warned his people of Allah's coming wrath upon them for their disgusting actions that had never been done before by on of the sons of Adam (id est by any human before), and that was the practice by men of sexual relations (with each other) without women, and this is greatly disgusting, the men were satisfied with men, and the women with women}}

 

Thus it can be assumed that she like the rest of the women of her people was engaged in homosexual behavior with women on a regular basis, thus justifying her destruction. This shows how parts of the story were not conveyed in the Islamic tradition; in the biblical original, Genesis 19:17 and 19:26, Lot's wife is destroyed because she looks back at the city being destroyed in contravention of the Angels' orders.