So Gabriel struck their faces with a mere flick of the tip of his wing, and their eyes were wiped out—so completely, it is said, that the sockets themselves disappeared and not a trace remained. Blinded, they groped along the walls, threatening the Messenger of the Most-Merciful and muttering, “Tomorrow we shall have our reckoning with him.”
Allah the Exalted declared: “They even lusted after his guests, so We blotted out their eyes. ‘Taste My punishment and My warning!’ (37) And early next morning an abiding punishment overtook them.” (Q 54:37–38)
After this, the angels turned to Lot—peace be upon him—commanding him: “Travel with your family in the depths of the night, and let none of you look back” (Q 11:81); that is, when you hear the roar of the chastisement descending upon your people. They also instructed him to walk at the rear, acting as a shepherd for the rest.
The phrase “except your wife” may be read in the accusative, making it an exception to “travel with your family”—as though the meaning were, “except your wife, do not take her with you.” It can also be linked to the clause “let none of you look back, except your wife,” meaning that she will turn and be struck by what strikes them. The nominative reading supports the latter, yet the first interpretation appears stronger—and Allah knows best.
Al-Suhaylī (1) notes that the name of Lot’s wife was Wālihah, while the wife of Noah was named Wāligah.
The angels then gave him glad tidings of the ruin of those rebellious, accursed sinners—men whom Allah has made a precedent for every treacherous doubter—saying: “Their appointed time is the dawn; is not the dawn near?” (Q 11:81)
Lot, peace be upon him, set out with his household—his two daughters—and not a single man from among his people followed him. Some say his wife went out with him; Allah knows best. Once they had cleared the borders of their land and the sun had risen, the irrevocable decree of Allah descended upon those towns, a might that no one could repel.
According to the People of the Book, the angels first told him to climb to the summit of the nearby mountain. He thought it too far and asked leave to flee to a close-by village. They replied, “Go ahead; we shall wait until you reach it and settle there, then we shall unleash the punishment.” They report that he went to the village of Ṣuġar—known today as Ghawr Zughar. When the sun rose, the torment struck them.
Allah the Most High says: “When Our command came, We turned their cities upside down and rained upon them stones of baked clay, layered one upon another (82), marked with your Lord, and they are never far from the wrongdoers.” (Q 11:82–83)
They relate that Gabriel uprooted those towns—their foundations and all— with the edge of his wing. They were seven cities, together with all their inhabitants. Some say they numbered four hundred; others, four thousand souls—along with their livestock, their cultivated lands, and everything attached to them. He raised them until they touched the clouds, so that the angels heard the crowing of their roosters and the barking of their dogs; then he turned them upside down, making their highest parts their lowest.
Mujāhid said that the first part to strike the earth was their peaks. Then, “We rained upon them stones of baked clay, layered one upon another” (Q 11:82).
The word sijjīl (2) is Persian in origin and denotes something extremely hard.