But Lot believed on him,6 and said, “I betake me to my Lord, for He truly is the Mighty, the Wise.”

And we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob,7 and placed the gift of prophecy and the Scripture among his posterity; And we gave him his reward in this world, and in the next he shall be among the just.

We sent also Lot:  when he said to his people, “Proceed ye to a filthiness in which no people in the world hath ever gone before you?

Proceed ye even to men? attack ye them on the highway? and proceed ye to the crime in your assemblies?” But the only answer of his people was to say, “Bring God’s chastisement upon us, if thou art a man of truth.”

He cried:  My Lord! help me against this polluted people.

And when our messengers came to Abraham with the tidings of a son, they said, “Of a truth we will destroy the in-dwellers in this city, for its in-dwellers are evil doers.”

He said, “Lot is therein.”  They said, “We know full well who therein is.  Him and his family will we save, except his wife; she will be of those who linger.

And when our messengers came to Lot, he was troubled for them, and his arm was too weak8 to protect them; and they said, “Fear not, and distress not thyself, for thee and thy family will we save, except thy wife; she will be of those who linger.9

We will surely bring down upon the dwellers in this city vengeance from Heaven for the excesses they have committed.”

And in what we have left of it is a clear sign to men of understanding.

And to Madian we sent their brother Shoaib.  And he said, “Oh! my people! worship God, and expect the latter day, and enact not in the land deeds of harmful excess.”

But they treated him as an impostor:  so an earthquake assailed them; and at morn they were found prostrate and dead in their dwellings.

And we destroyed Ad and Themoud.  Already is this made plain to you in the ruins of their dwellings.  For Satan had made their own works fair seeming to them, and drew them from the right path, keen-sighted though they were.

And Corah and Pharaoh and Haman.  With proofs of his mission did Moses come to them, and they behaved proudly on the earth; but us they could not outstrip;10

For, every one of them did we seize in his sin.  Against some of them did wesend a stone-charged wind:  Some of them did the terrible cry of Gabriel surprise:  for some of them we cleaved the earth; and some of them we drowned.  And it was not God who would deal wrongly by them, but they wronged themselves.

The likeness for those who take to themselves guardians instead of God is the likeness of the spider who buildeth her a house:  But verily, frailest of all houses surely is the house of the spider.  Did they but know this!

God truly knoweth all that they call on beside Him; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.

These similitudes do we set forth to men:  and none understand them except the wise.