The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 410
PT. 14 وَجَاءَ أَهْلُ الْمَدِينَةِ يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ CH. 15 AL-HIJR 68. And the people of the city came rejoicing. 1771 be guests, SO put me not to shame; 1772 قَالَ إِنَّ هَؤُلَاءِ ضَيْفِي فَلَا تَفْضَحُونِ He said, These are my. 69 Commentary: "11:79. 11:79. The words of this verse are spoken by God and not by the messengers, as it might appear from the context. As the messengers had come to tell Lot that the time of the threatened punishment of his people had already arrived, so in this verse God says to Lot that what the messengers had was communicated to him undoubtedly true, and as the time was very short, he should quit the place at once. It is this direct revelation of God that has been mentioned in the present verse and possibly in the previous one as well. The word among other things signifies, the root of a thing. But the word "root" does not here mean, "great men" (who are certainly the root of a tribe or clan) but the entire tribe collectively, for the word "root" also symbolizes the whole tree. In fact, the words, Excepting the family of Lot, occurring in v. 60 show that in the present verse this word cannot be taken in the sense of "great men" for, according to the above quoted verse, both the great and the small men of Lot's people were destroyed, with the exception of a few members of his family. Moreover, the word also means "the last remnant. " So the verse definitely signifies that all the people of Lot were destroyed except only a few. See also 6:46. (by the morning مصبحين The word shows that Lot was bidden to journey with his family in the latter part of the night so that his wicked countrymen might not discover their absence and pursue and overtake them before the threatened punishment which was to take place at sunrise (v. 74). 1771. Commentary: From the Bible it appears that the au (city) mentioned in this verse was the seat of kings (Gen. 14:17, 21). ✓ the town to which the Holy Prophet fled from Mecca was also called a (city) by him, which implied the prophecy that after having become free from epidemics which ravaged it before, it would become a great town and the Centre 1618 of Islam. 1772. Commentary: Lot had been told by his people not to bring strangers into the city and now that he had brought these guests he knew that he would be taken to task for having defied their warnings. He therefore asked them not to disgrace him by mentioning this matter before his guests.