The holy Prophet Lot, ( Peace be upon him )

We've pointed out before that the story of Lot is connected to the story of Abraham ( P B U H ) and also connected to the stories of his sons Ishmael and Isaac for they are mentioned with him in many holy phrases and tales because they all share the same call to God and they all lived in the same time, and the religion of all is the same religion of Abraham ( P B  U H ), and he is their master and the one that was a subject to many troubles, and God revealed upon him only the books that explain the religion and laws, and they followed him for whatever he said, and Lot got out with him when he was banished from his own lands and he was the first to believe in him, and Lot is the nephew and the maternal cousin for Abraham and this matter had been investigated when we talked about the conditions of Abraham. God said: And Lot believed him, and said: Lo! I am a fugitive unto my Lord(Al-`Ankabut:26). Lot was mentioned in quran in fourteen chapters: Al-An`âm, Al-A`râf, Hud, Al-Hijr, Al-Anbiyâ', Al-Haj, Al-Shu`arâ', Al-Naml, Al-`Ankabut, Al-Sâffât, Sâd, Qâf, Al-Qamar, Al-Tahreem. We mentioned before that when quran comes to mention about any prophet's conditions, it either mention their conditions in details or in brief.

They mentioned that Lot owned many riches and cattle of camels, horses, sheep's and cows and other animals, along with servants and gold and silver, like his uncle Abraham, and only God knows, and after they had travelled out of Iraq to the lands of Shem and Palestine, Lot (PUH) most probably settled in Jordan, and the village he settled in was called Sadoom (Sodom) and beside it the village of `Âmoorâ' (Gomorrah). This is what Al-Mas`udi said in Muruj Al-Ðahab: And God sent Lot to Sodom and its five villages are: Sabghah, `Amrah, Edmâ', Sabugh and Bâli` [maybe the Hebrew names are: Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Bela and Zoar], and the people of Lot are Al-Mu'tafika, and this name is derived from "Ifk" which means "lying" and this is the opinion of whoever followed derivation method, and God said: And Al-Mu'tafikah He destroyed(Al-Najm:53), and this land is located in the lands of Shem after Jordan and Palestine, and torturing stones there can be seen by travellers, and Lot lived there for something more than twenty years and used to call the people for God but they did not believe in him so then they were taken away by God's punishment according what God mentioned about them (in Quran), then God punished the people of Lot at the time of Abraham (P B U H) for their deeds and doings.

The people of Lot were people of evil and took off the cover of shyness, and they were never shy to do the bad things that even animals deny to do as well as the human souls, and they were never shy of each other to do the most awful things, so all would gather, the old and the young, the father and the son, the master and the slave, they all gather together to commit sodomy with a strange man even in front of their women and daughters, and they used to fart in their gatherings and clubs as it is interpreted by God's saying: and commit ye not abomination in your meetings(Al-`Ankabut:29).

The people of Sodom were people of evil and rudeness, and they had a judge that judges for them always whether they were right or wrong as it is said, so then Sarah the wife of Abraham sent a messenger to Sodom to see the conditions of Lot and his safety, and when he arrived there one man saw him and came to him and hit him on his head with a stone so his blood went out, then he hanged on him and said: this huge amount of blood if it was in your body any longer it would harm you so I wanted my fees! When the debate went for so long between them and the messenger of Sarah could not get rid of that man he called him for a judgment, so they went to the ruler of Sodom, and when he heard their story he judged for the the messenger to pay for the sodomite the fees, so when the messenger of Sarah, Elazar, saw such injustices he took a stone and hit the judge on his head and made his blood go out and said to him: the fees that you must pay to me for hitting you, pay them back to the man that hit me and made my blood go out, then he left out back to where he came from to escape this village and its injustices.

Abdul-Wahâb Al-Najjâr said in his stories: I was reading the poem of Al-Ma`arri [a poet's name]:

Who is the one that saw a judge

That did not judge as the way of Sodom

<>and I did not understand what did he mean by that and did he mean by Sodom, until I read this story and then I understood what is meant by the poem. There are other stories attributed to them that would make the author and the reader so shy of it but we left it out because they are connected to funny legends. How awfully great what the people of Sodom did and it was not of benefit for them the residence of the prophet Lot among them and his guides and advices, and they did not care about his warnings although he promised them the benefits and goodness, and he carried out lot of their troubles, and he stayed with them for long time but no results could be gained from them, then he prayed to God to punish them, and God allowed to punish them as soon as possible. Then God sent His messengers to flip upside down their villages and to tell Abraham about that before it is done, and when they went to him they brought to him the tidings about his son Isaac, and Jacob after Isaac. When they went to Abraham, he thought them to be guests, so he made for them some food and got a fat sheep for this, and when he saw that their hands do not try to get some of the food he got into doubts about them and got scared from them, so they told him that they are messenger of God had been sent by Him to take revenge from the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they are the ones that are expressed as to be the people of Lot. Some historians said: I think that the dead sea which is known now as the sea of Lot and/or the lake of Lot was not there before this incident, but it appeared because of the earthquake that made the highest  of the land to the lowest and it became lower than the sea level by almost four hundred meters. Some news been told lately about finding some traces that belong to the villages of the people of Lot on the edges of the dead sea. When Abraham knew that the people of Lot will be destroyed and that the angels are sent to do so, and he saw that they had young people, sick people and children that did not do any wrong and also in the land there is Lot and his household, he was affected for this matter, for he had a passionate heart, so he could not hold his self and started arguing about that and the angels then answered him "we know who is there better" and told him that Lot and his family will get no harm and they will be saved, and the judgment of God will not return back. God said: And when the awe departed from Abraham, and the glad news reached him, he pleaded with Us on behalf of the folk of Lot. Lo! Abraham was mild, imploring, penitent(Hud:74-75).

God said about the people of Lot in the chapter of Al-A`râf: And Lot! (Remember) when he said unto his folk: Will ye commit abomination such as no creature ever did before you ? Lo! ye come with lust unto men instead of women. Nay, but ye are wanton folk. And the answer of his people was only that they said (one to another): Turn them out of your township. They are folk, forsooth, who keep pure. And We rescued him and his household, save his wife, who was of those who stayed behind. And We rained a rain upon them. See now the nature of the consequence of evil-doers!(Al-A`râf:80-84) And we've mentioned before the ancestry of Lot and that he is the son of Haran ben Terah, the cousin of Abraham, and also been said that he is his maternal cousin and that Sarah the wife of the Abraham is his sister, and we've mentioned before that there is nothing wrong about that, and Lot is Abraham's cousin and also his maternal cousin and also a brother of Sarah the wife of Abraham (P B U H), check back and meditate and only God knows.

The people Lot used to come with lust to men instead of women and so they cut off the child birth and make people avoid passing into their lands for this deed because they used to do it with strangers that pass through their lands, and they used to throw stones on strangers and the one that hit him then this stranger would be for him, so they take his money and commit sodomy with him or take three coins from him and leave his money alone, and they had a judge that allows all of that, and in their gatherings they used to do abominations without being shy, so God revealed His anger upon them and His punishment, and it was the black stones or in some other tales the black water and it is a sign for God's anger and a gate to lands' destruction. Every type is mentioned and it might be that every type was done indeed, and so their lands were flipped upside down and then been rained by the black stones, as it is told in details in the chapter of Hud: And when Our messengers came unto Lot, he was distressed and knew not how to protect them. He said: This is a distressful day. And his people came unto him, running towards him - and before then they used to commit abominations - He said: O my people! Here are my daughters! They are purer for you. Beware of Allah, and degrade me not in (the person of) my guests. Is there not among you any upright man ? They said: Well thou knowers that we have no right to thy daughters, and well thou knowers what we want.He said: Would that I had strength to resist you or had some strong support (among you)! (The messengers) said: O Lot! Lo! we are messengers of thy Lord; they shall not reach thee. So travel with thy people in a part of the night, and let not one of you turn round - (all) save thy wife. Lo! that which smite  them will smite her (also). Lo! their tryst is (for) the morning. Is not the morning nigh ? So when Our commandment came to pass We overthrew (that township) and rained upon it stones of clay, one after another, Marked with fire in the providence of thy Lord (for the destruction of the wicked). And they are never far from the wrong-doers(Hud:77-83), and lot of such tidings been brought by other holy phrases from other chapters with little differences, and we'd like to point that out as headlines, in the chapter of Al-Hijr: They said; Have we not forbidden you from (entertaining) anyone ? He said: Here are my daughters, if ye must be doing (so)(Al-Hijr:70-71), and in the chapter of Al-Shu`arâ': And leave the wives your Lord created for you ? Nay, but ye are forward folk(Al-Shu`arâ':166).

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It is mentioned that the prophet (P B U H) used to seek protection by God against parsimony, so Abu-Ja`far Al-Sâdiq (P B U H) was asked about this so he said: yes, every morning and every evening, and we seek protection by God against parsimony and God says: And whoso is saved from his own greed, such are the successful(Al-Taghabun:16). Then he (P B U H) said: and I will tell you about the end of parsimony, the people of Lot were parsimonious about food, and this made them sick with such an illness that have no cure, so I said to him: and what is that? He answered: the village of the people of Lot were located on the way of caravans between the lands of Shem and Egypt, and so caravans used to stop in their place for hospitality, so when there had been so much traffic in their lands and they were tired of this hospitality because of their parsimony and their evil spirit, their parsimony made them defame a man (commit sodomy) without them having the lust to do so, but they did it just to make the guests escape, and so their tidings arrived to the near by villages, and so parsimony gave them such an illness that they could not cure without having the lust for doing such thing, and they went to ask men in the lands to do this with them and even gave rewards for that, so the man asking said to the Imam, Al-Bâqir (P B  U H): all of the village of Lot used to do this? He answered: yes, except one house of believers, didn't you hear God's saying: Then we brought forth such believers as were there.But We found there but one house of those surrendered (to Allah)(Al-Ðâriyât:35-36), and then Lot stayed among them calling them back to God for thirty years, and they used not to clean themselves after excrement and never purify themselves after uncleanness (from semen, pollution), and Lot was a generous man that give hospitality to his guests and aware them about his people, so when his people saw this they said "Have we not forbidden you from (entertaining) anyone ?", and it is a long speech. Then after that when guests used to come to Lot, he kept his hospitality as a secret, until the guest is out of his house for he was afraid that his people would defame him with his guests, for Lot had no tribe to protect him, and Lot along with Abraham expected God's wrath upon them.

Some speeches contained the meaning of that God knew that the people of Lot will never be fixed and that their torture will be in life before the after-life as a revenge for their bad deeds and to be a lesson for others, and God used to delay their punishment for the sake of Abraham and Lot for they hated destroying lands. For this and that, God delayed their punishment until their time had come and had no way back, so He sent His messengers to sink their lands. In tidings: When it was midnight, Lot took his daughters and went out, and his wife went to her people telling them that Lot want to escape, so then said Gabriel (P B U H ): and I was called from the Throne at the time of dawn: O Gabriel, God's promise for the torture of Lot's people became so true, so pull out their village down from the seventh earth, then fly with it up into heaven and stop it there until the commandment of God arrives to you to flip it down, and leave a portion from the house of Lot to be as reminder for passers by, so I went down to the village and I stroke its east with my right wing and its west with my left wing and then I pulled it out from the depth of the seventh earth except the house of Lot, then I went up with it in a place where even the creations of heaven can hear the cry of their cocks and the barking of their dogs, so when sun rose up I was called from the Throne: O Gabriel, flip the lands over the people and so I did and made their lowest on the top, and God sent them heavy rains of baked clay, and the position of their lands were in the lands of Shem, so I flipped their lands and made it between the lands of Shem and Egypt and it made some lines out of the sea. We say, flipping the villages of Lot is something that all religions agree on although there are different ways for how it was flipped, and we should not think of a special way for their punishment was done by destroying their lands by many ways and that does not harm the desired essential idea and that God took revenge from them for their evil-doings and their exaggerated tyranny and rebellion against God and His prophet which they harmed so much, and your Lord is no oppressor of (His) bondmen.

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What is apparent in Quran that Lot was giving his daughters to his people whenever they want to harm his guests and some holy phrases say: Here are my daughters, if ye must be doing (so)(Al-Hijr:70). This is something that faithful souls deny and no man with a bit of jealousy accept such a thing even if it was for something important like protecting his guests against the disbelievers and tyrants, so just doing this by giving up his daughters for the wrong-doing is something denied by the mind and can not be done by a faithful man of jealousy. So, how come it is done by a prophet, that is an example of dignity and honor and he is the guidance of God to the people, and it is attributed to the prophet (P B U H) and his Household (P B U T) what includes the meaning of: whoever started a good habit, then he has its reward and the rewards of people who do it after him until the doomsday, and whoever started an evil habit then he has its punishment and the punishments of people who do it after him until the doomsday. Some people interpreted that just from its apparent meaning, and still it has the same result of meaning, so how about if we were talking about a prophet of God for the people that by him laws and regulations of the religion would be taken and taught and within his hands the right to ban the evil-doings and allow the good-deeds, so just doing such a thing is greatly denied for it is something denied by the mind and also banned by the laws of religion in all religions and it is never found to be allowed since the beginning of creation until this very day, but for protection against such a thing blood had been shed and it is the law that must be kept, and if it was not so then every son of a female even if he has no religion he won't be traced back to an honorable root.

The deeds of the religious authority are subject to be followed and it is taken by people either they believed in such authority or not to take such deeds as clues and people keep telling the stories about such an authority and the tidings would keep up by time, and if it was such deed is bad, then people would mock at religions and take it as something ridiculous and such a thing is against the purpose that for which God sent His prophet, and such deeds would not be issued by a Wiseman, and impossible to be issued by a Wiseman.

The talk of Lot that was told in Quran in the chapter of Hud: O my people! Here are my daughters! They are purer for you. Beware of Allah, and degrade me not in (the person of) my guests. Is there not among you any upright man ?(Hud:78), and in the chapter of Al-Hijr: They said; Have we not forbidden you from (entertaining) anyone ? He said: Here are my daughters, if ye must be doing (so)(Al_hijr:70-71), such talk is not interpreted on its apparent basis but it is interpreted on the basis of a righteous judgment of religion, and only God knows its exact interpretations and them who are in deep wisdom of this, and they are the ones that Quran was revealed in their homes and that is the prophet (P B UH) and his viceroys that are his Household (P B U T). It is said about this matter, that what is meant by his daughters is their wives, because people are connected to the prophet sent to them by father, so Lot did not offer his own daughter, but he offered the daughters of the village and they are their own wives as to prevent them from doing the bad deed (sodomy), and some said that what is meant by this is that he offered them for marriage and not adultery which is something allowed, and it is far away from what is apparent, and also it is said that he offered them but not seriously for that they might get back and stop harming him for they know that they would not do such a deed but it was just an exaggeration from him (Lot) to show his un satisfaction for harming his guests and to show his denial for such bad-doings, and it is like a way to stop the fight between two persons, like coming to one of them and saying "hit me but not him" and if he knew that this person will hit him indeed he wouldn't come to do it, and this last interpretation might be the most probable, but anyway we know that what is meant by the holy phrase is not what is apparent, be aware, and only God knows.

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The Wife of Lot (P B U H)

The wife of Lot (P B U H ) was from village and she followed the religion of her own people and did not believe in Lot or his religion and never followed him by any way, but she followed her people and their religion and she liked their deeds and she was an enemy to Lot and to everything connected to him and to anyone who loves him, so she was a disbeliever and used to guide the people for his guests, and they said: she assigned a sign between her and her people to tell them about his guests, and that is whenever guests would come to him at night she would work some fire on the roof of the house, and at daytime she would make a smoke instead, and in some speeches it is mentioned that after leaving Abraham, the angels went to Lot and found him watering his plants, so Lot said to them: who are you? They answered: we are travellers, make us your guests tonight. Then he said: O people, the people of this village are people of evil and God damned them, they commit sodomy with men and take their money, so they said: we've been late, make us your guests. Then he went to his wife and said: we have some guests tonight so keep it a secret and I shall forgive you for all your deeds until this very day, so she said: I will, and when Gabriel and the angels entered to his home, his wife made a fire on the roof and so the people of the village knew about it and came to him from every direction and when they reached the door they said to Lot: Have we not forbidden you from entertaining anyone? He answered: Here are my daughters! They are purer for you, and he meant by that their wives because the prophet is considered to be like the father of his nation so he called them back to what is allowed, so he said: your wives are purer for you. They said: Well thou knowers that we have no right to thy daughters, and well thou knowers what we want, then Lot said when he was despaired: Would that I had strength to resist you or had some strong support.

In speeches: no prophet was sent after Lot unless he was of a high place among his people, and maybe the saying of Lot "Would that I had strength" was dedicated to the angels and the purpose of it is to mean if only he have strength to protect them, and Lot did not know they were angels at that time, then the angels told him about their real identity and for the purpose for their arrival, but the apparent thing in the holy phrases is that the speech was dedicated to his people and not to the angels, because when they (his people) came running towards him, it is more accurate to be with them at that moment, and only God knows.When the people tried to take the guests of Lot out of his home by force and attacked his house, God made them unable to see any place to get into the house, and so they did not see the way nor the door and did not know where are they, and the earth shaken under their feet and their heads flipped upside down and their eyes and their hearts been blind.

Then angels took out Lot and his daughters and his wife from the village and ordered them that no one should look back and they should go to wherever they are ordered, so they obeyed the commandments except his wife and she looked back to the village to see what happened to it and her heart was there more than it is with Lot, and so she had the punishment that was revealed on them, and she was a disbeliever, so God rained with baked clay, and flipped their lands and made the highest of it to the lowest, and God said in the chapter of Al-Tahreem: Allah citeth an example for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot, who were under two of Our righteous slaves yet betrayed them so that they (the husbands) availed them naught against Allah and it was said (unto them): Enter the Fire along with those who enter(Al-Tahreem:10). It is said that in Torah mentioned the story in the same way that Quran did but it did not mention anything about offering his daughters, and it mentioned that while the wife of Lot was walking away from the village she looked back at her people and then she was turned to a pillar of salt, and Lot with his daughters then took refuge in a village called Zoar which was kept in safe.

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Sermons to be Taken From The Story of Abraham and Others Mentioned With Him

The most apparent of all is from throwing Abraham in the fire and breaking the idols, Nimrod threw him into the fire to let him back from his religion, but since his faith was strong against all odds and never shaken, he did not care about anything, nor about any torture that meant to let him disbelieve, and for such a deed (breaking the idols) from the friend of God, their corners were shaken and the beards of their young's had been white, and by this deed the Throne of the Exalted became filled with happiness and mountains been amazed and proud and close angels did bend in a sign of respect, and the whole universe smiled to him, for he is alone in the face of a tyrant that does not believe in the judgment day and all the creatures are afraid of him, so one could do such a thing except someone that is in deep faith into God and does not see any goal in this life except to obey his Lord even in the hardest moments, and He is the One that will bring victory to him, and for this He made the fire to be coolness and peace thus he was not touched by it, and when he was thrown into the fire Gabriel (P B U H) met him in the air while he was falling and said to him: need anything? So he answered: to you no, but to my Lord yes, so he was saved from their evil and fire by his own faith in his Lord.

He broke their idols and made them into pieces except the biggest of them for a sermon and we've explained it and so the king was not brave enough to kill him, and Abraham was alone without anyone to bring him victory, but only God saved him and ordered him to travel out of their lands, and if anyone meditated in this he would find this amazing thing is only because he (Abraham) believed in his Lord, and by his faith he despised the fire, meditate in these honorable situations which have the sermons for the nations and generations for the coming days and times.

Abraham was guided by intuition to the faith, and born with faith being side by side to him, as been told by our prophet (P B U H ): every child is born with intuition but his parents may make him a Christian or a Jew. So the faith of Abraham had never been corrupted, and he grew up seeking and getting inspired for the clues of unification by the traces of the One, so he guided himself to the Creator by His creation, and to the Eternal by what is mortal. Then he looked to this human that was created out of nothing while he worships something he made by his own hands, then he (Abraham) gradually tried to make them conclude the truth and stop worshipping the idols, then he looked at the planets and they were with him and said: they worth worshipping more than woods and other stuff that are made by our own hands, and  when planets disappeared and he knew that they were created as well he said:  Lo! I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the idolaters(Al-An`âm:79).

So Abraham (P B U H  ) did not deny their gods from the first glance, but he made them gradually admit that these are not gods since they don't have feelings or senses, then he tested their gods one after the other by many ways that would be enough for them to stop worshipping them, and he showed how their gods were unable to do a thing and how they do not deserve to be gods.

Yes, and Abraham (P B U H ) was patient  with a great patience, and not in a hurry to call all the creatures to know the Creator, and this is obvious in his answer to his father Azar when he said to him:  If thou cease not, I shall surely stone thee. Depart from me a long while!(Mariam:46), so Abraham answered: Peace be unto thee! I shall ask forgiveness of my Lord for thee. Lo! He was ever gracious unto me(Mariam:47), and in other holy phrase: And forgive my father. Lo! he is of those who err(Al-Shuàrâ':86) and so on. It is true what some historians said about this matter, when they said: it is true that when a truthful belief gets deep into the soul and the heart then it will occupy the mind of the man and own his heart. The revolution of Abraham (P B U H ) against the idols and its worshipping was not only talkative revolution but also a practical one, and so he made their idols into pieces except the biggest one and made this deed as a way to argue with them until he made them into silence, so they came to treat him hard and threw him into the fire, but she was coolness and peaceful upon him. Then he thanked God for saving him and never kept a single way that he did not take to call for the righteous path and he was indeed as been told by God: That is Our argument. We gave it unto Abraham against his folk(Al-An`âm:83), and he was arguing with the tyrant, Nimrod, with carelessness toward his power until he made him shame of his self and prove him wrong, so God said: Bethink thee of him who had an argument with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had given him the kingdom; how, when Abraham said: My Lord is He Who grivet life and caused death, he answered: I give life and cause death. Abraham said: Lo! Allah caused the sun to rise in the East, so do thou cause it to come up from the West. Thus was the disbeliever abashed. And Allah guided not wrongdoing folk(Al-Baqarah:258).

Then presenting his only son Ishmael to be slain as God ordered him in his dream is the ultimate clue for his faith in God, and he prepared everything to give his only son as a gift until God ransomed him with a great victim. He (Abraham) was also a man of dignity and purity, and he never asked someone else except God and never refused anyone came to him for a purpose, and he was a man of hospitality and was the first to command for hospitality, and used to prostrate a lot on the ground for God only, and used to pray a lot for Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad (P BB U H ), and in some speeches that God did not consider Abraham as a friend except for feeding people and praying at night while people are sleeping, and he was a man of jealousy as well and whenever he goes out he locks the door behind him and took his keys, and for many good virtues and deeds that Abraham had, he was given the title of friend of God.

As reported from Al-Sâdiq (P B U H)   that he said: Abraham once had a hard time so he went to his people but they were in a condition of a drought so he went back as he came, and when he was close to his home he came down from his ass and filled his bag of sands just to calm down his wife Sarah, so when he went inside he took off the bag down from his ass then Sarah came and opened it and found it was full of flour and so she made some bread and then she said to Abraham (P B U H ): finish your pray and come eat, so he said to her: from where  did you get this? She answered: from the flour in that bag, so then Abraham lifted his head towards the sky and said: I testify that you are the Friend. It is more probable that God had Abraham as a slave before He makes him a prophet, and made him a prophet before He make him a messenger, and made him a messenger before He makes him a friend and had him as a friend before He makes him a leader, so when God gathered all these characteristics for him He told him: Lo! I have appointed thee a leader for mankind, so then said Abraham: And of my offspring? He answered: My covenant included not wrong-doers. This story had been mentioned before and been explained for its purposes, and for the high place of Abraham in faith, and for his love to know things deeply, he asked God to show him how He resurrects the dead to make his heart more faithful by looking at what humans do not believe in except by looking at. Quran had described his request, so God said: And when Abraham said (unto his Lord): My Lord! Show me how Thou gives  life to the dead, He said: Dost thou not believe ? Abraham said: Yea, but (I ask) in order that my heart may be at ease. (His Lord) said: Take four of the birds and cause them to incline unto thee, then place a part of them on each hill, then call them, they will come to thee in haste, and know that Allah is Mighty, Wise(Al-Baqarah:260). What is apparent from the holy phrase is what we mentioned before about the love of knowing things deeply, and so the answer came to him to distribute the parts of four birds on certain hills and not every hill on earth, and the interpretation of such phrase can be only attributed to the prophet and his Household (PUT).

They (the Household) (P B U H) said what is in general meant that God ordered Abraham to slay four kinds of birds: a peacock, an eagle, a cock and a duck. The peacock is meant to be the ornaments of this life, and the eagle is meant to be the long hope, and the duck is meant to be caution, and the cock is meant to be the lust, so the total meaning that God desired and He knows better, that if you want to be with Me then cut out these four things, and if any of these were in one's heart then he is never with Me. This interpretation had been told in different ways but the general meaning is the same, for the knowledge of things in deep is something that only God can do and He is far from the human thought about Himself.

Maybe it is thought that God could make him able to understand such matter, the answer would be yes, but maybe the thing that prevents that is the inability of creature and not God, as it is in the case of letting a camel into the needle's eye, so the fact of resurrection is one of the facts that can not be sensed by the human beings' senses, but only some of its reason can be sensed like killing, burning, medicine, food..etc., and for this matter there is an investigation by itself. Abraham slain the bird sand distributed their parts over the hills then he called them back and they came together again and combined as they were before slaying them by the commandments of God, for He is who resurrect bones after being rotted away. Some scholars said: Abraham wanted to know this by eyes after he knew it by heart. Another reason was mentioned for this request is that was after the argument of Nimrod with him about resurrection when Nimrod said: I give life and death, and so then he released a prisoner and killed another, then Abraham said: this is not giving life (resurrection), so then Nimrod warned him and threatened him if God did not resurrect for him the dead, so then he requested from God to resurrect them and God told him what to do to let Nimrod know that and for this he said "in order that my heart may be at ease."

For the patience of Ishmael ben Abraham (PUT) troubles come so small, and he was so patient and no one was like him in his patience, he was driven away from his family and homeland when he was a child, and no one was with him except his purified mother Hagar, and he opened his eyes and did not find anyone to keep him a company from his relatives except his mother Hagar, and found himself alone in a land without plants or buildings or animals except of the beasts and insects for a while, until God drove by His mercy some of His creation that were different from them and they were the tribe of Jorhom and the Giants, and so Hagar said when Abraham brought her and wanted to leave at once: you left us in a land that has no water or plants or a living thing, God ordered you so? So he said: yes, so she said: if God ordered you so then we not lost and He shall take care of us.

Ishmael the only that was born for his mother and father and the stranger from his family and homeland been told then by his father in a surprise: I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice thee. So look, what thickest thou ? He said: O my father! Do that which thou art commanded. Allah willing, thou shalt find me of the steadfast, and that was when he was not yet a man, but he answered without complaining, and what a patience could a child have except for him, and kids have long hopes in this life, but Ishmael presented himself to be slain with a complete acceptance, and so no one like him from the generation that is like him or from the people before, and such a deed issued by him (P B U H) is something holy and great, so then Ishmael is the sincere servant of God the one  that made his life for God, and we can not imagine a soul purer than his nor someone closer to God more than him and no creature did good to his parents more than Ishmael did, the one that gave himself for sacrifice, when his father laid him on his side with a knife in his hand over his neck, then Gabriel flipped it by a commandment of God and ransomed him with a great victim, and this story has its pains in the heart of the believers, and its main character deserves every word of beauty, because being patient for troubles is not something that everyone can do,  [then comes a line that seems to have printing mistakes].

Isaac and Lot, both of them were in stand and ready to serve God without complaining, with patience and thanks to God and such characteristics now are rare in people, and the stories of Lot points out how much generous he was with hospitality to both neighbors and guests, and he struggled against the disbelievers to keep their harm away, for they used to attack the guests and defame him and take his money away, and Lot used to protect them (guests) and warn them against the treatment of his people and he faced many harms from them (his people) and none were there to protect him among them, and the most harmful person to him was his wife for she was an eye for her people over her husband, and she was a disbeliever and did not believe in God and for this god destroyed her with them, so Lot was a man of great faith and how come not that to be and he is a generous prophet,  and he travelled with his uncle Abraham from the land of Iraq to the lands of Shem leaving his homeland and his family and his tribe for the sake of his religion and got far away from his people. God said: And Lot believed him, and said: Lo! I am a fugitive unto my Lord(Al-`Ankabut:26) and this is the last thing we would like to mention about the stories of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Lot, and peace may be upon our prophet and his Household (P B U T ) and thanks be to God alone.