Description
Lut, known as Lot or loot in the Old Testament, is a prophet of God in the Quran. According to Islamic tradition, Lut was born to Haran and spent his younger years in Ur, later migrating to Canaan with his uncle Abraham. He was sent to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as a prophet, and was commanded to preach to their inhabitants on monotheism and the sinfulness of homosexuality and their lustful and violent acts.
Though Lut was not born among the people he'd been sent to preach to, the people of Sodom are still regarded as his "brethren" in the Quran Like the Biblical narrative, the Quran states that Lut's messages were ignored by the inhabitants of the cities, and Sodom and Gomorrah were subsequently destroyed. The destruction of the cities is traditionally presented as a warning against male rape and went on to be used as a warning against homosexual acts.
While the Quran does not elaborate upon Lut's later life, Islam holds that all prophets were examples of moral and spiritual righteousness.
Muslims maintain that Abraham's father was Aazar, which could be derived from the Syriac Athar, who is known in the Hebrew Bible as Terah. Abraham had two children, Isaac and Ismael, who both later became prophets. Abraham's nephew is said to have been the prophet Lut, who was one of the other people who migrated with Abraham out of their community. Abraham himself is said to have been a descendant of Nuh through his son Shem.
Quran:
Lut is referenced a relatively large number of times in the Quran. Many of these passages place the narrative of Lut in a line of successive prophets including Noah, Hud, Salih and Shuayb. Islamic scholars have stated that these particular prophets represent the early cycle of prophecy as described in the Quran. These narratives typically follow similar patterns: a prophet is sent to a community; the community pays no heed to his warnings instead threatens him with punishment; God asks the prophet to leave with his followers the community and its people are subsequently destroyed in a punishment. Elsewhere in the Quran, Lut is mentioned alongside Ismael, Elisha and Jonah as men whom God favored above the nations.
All major schools of Islamic jurisprudence state that homosexual sex is a sin, based in part on the story of Lot. Because the Quran states that Lot berated his people for sexually pursuing men, in addition to attempting to assault strangers, the incident is traditionally seen as demonstrating Islam's disapproval of both rape and homosexuality. Lot's struggle with the people of the twin cities is seen as either concerning homosexuality in general or specifically homosexual anal sex. These interpretations have sometimes widened to condemn homosexuality beyond the physical act, including psychological and social dispositions.
The Quran states that one day, a group of angels visited Abraham as guests in the guise of men in order to inform him of the fact that his wife Sarah was pregnant with Isaac. While there, they also told him that they had been sent by God to the "guilty people" of Lut to destroy them with "a shower of stones of clay". Lut and those who believed in him, were to be spared, but his wife was to die in the destruction, with the angels stating that "she is of those who lag behind". The Quran also draws upon Lot's wife as an "example for the unbelievers" as she was married to a righteous man but refused to believe in his message and was thus condemned to Hell.
The people of the twin cities transgressed against the bounds of God. According to the Quran, their sins included inhospitality and robbery they hated strangers and robbed travellers, apart from other abuses and rape. It was their sin of sexual misconduct as well which was seen as particularly egregious, with Lut strongly chiding them for approaching men with sexual desire instead of women. Lut told and tried to help them to abandon their sinful ways, but they ridiculed him and threatened to evict him from the cities.
