11. Hud

And his wife that is Abraham’s wife Sarah standing by serving them laughed at the good tiding of their destruction; and so We gave her the good tiding of Isaac and after Isaac of Jacob his son whom she would live to see.

She said ‘Woe to me! yā waylatā is an expression used in reaction to a serious matter; the alif suffixed in waylatā substitutes for the yā’ of the genitive annexation waylatī ‘my woe’. Shall I bear a child when I am an old woman 99 years old and this my husband is an old man? 100 or 120 years old shaykhan is in the accusative because it is a circumstantial qualifier operated by the demonstrative import of dhā ‘this’. Truly this is a strange thing’ that a child should be born to such an aged couple.

They said ‘Are you astonished by God’s command? by His power? The mercy of God and His blessings be upon you O people of the House! the House of Abraham. Truly He is Praised Glorious!’ Generous.

And when the awe the fear departed from Abraham and the good tiding came to him of a child he began to plead with Us pleading with Our messengers concerning the matter of the people of Lot.

Assuredly Abraham was forbearing long-suffering imploring penitent always returning to God in repentance thus he said to them ‘Would you destroy a town in which there are 300 believers?’ They said ‘No’. He said ‘Would you destroy a town in which there are 200 believers?’ They said ‘No’. He said ‘Would you destroy a town in which there are 40 believers?’ They said ‘No’. He said ‘Would you destroy a town in which there are 14 believers?’ They said ‘No’. He said ‘What if there were one believer in it?’ They said ‘No’. He said ‘Lot is in it’. They said ‘We know full well who is in it’ … to the end of the narrative.

When he had pleaded with them at length they said ‘O Abraham desist from this pleading. Truly your Lord’s command for their destruction has gone forth and truly there will come upon them a chastisement which cannot be repelled’.

And when Our messengers came to Lot he was distressed he was grieved on their account and felt constrained in his power to protect them because they had handsome faces and were dressed as visiting guests and so he feared for them from his people and he said ‘This is a distressful a very difficult day’.

And his people when they became aware of them came to him running hastening towards him — and previously before they came they had been committing abominations namely penetrative sexual intercourse with men. He Lot said ‘O my people! Here are my daughters marry with them; they are purer for you. So fear God and do not degrade me do not disgrace me before my guests. Is there not among you any upright man?’ to enjoin decency and forbid indecency?

They said ‘You know full well that we have no right to no need of your daughters and you know well what we desire’ in the way of sexual intercourse with men.