151 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; he said: al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-ʿIjlī told us; he said: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad related to us; he said: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr, on the authority of al-Suddi, reported:

“Gabriel split the earth with his wing, then lifted it—together with everyone in it—upon his wing until he carried them up to the sky. The inhabitants of the lowest heaven heard the crowing of their roosters and the barking of their dogs. He then overturned the land, making its highest part the lowest and its lowest the highest, and it plunged down. Concerning this, the Almighty says: ‘and the overturned cities He flung down’ (al-Najm 53)—that is, when Gabriel hurled it from heaven to earth.

They were then pursued, and stones were cast at their strongest men. A man could be in some distant town, yet the stone would reach him and kill him where he stood. This is the meaning of His words: ‘We rained upon it stones of baked clay’ (Hūd 82).

Ibn ʿAbbās said: sank wa kil—that is, stone mixed with clay. ‘layered’ (Hūd 82) means: marked and sealed. ‘And it is not far from the wrongdoers’ (Hūd 83), he explained, refers to the wrongdoers among the Arabs if they do not believe in the words of Muḥammad, peace and blessings be upon him. ⦗103⦘ He added: ‘Lot’s wife looked back; a stone struck her and killed her.’