فَلَمَّا رَءَآ أَيْدِيَهُمْ لَا تَصِلُ إِلَيْهِ نَكِرَهُمْ وَأَوْجَسَ مِنْهُمْ خِيفَةً قَالُوا۟ لَا تَخَفْ إِنَّآ أُرْسِلْنَآ إِلَىٰ قَوْمِ لُوطٍ
fa-lammā raʾā aydiyahum lā taṣilu ilayhi nakirahum wa awjasa minhum khīfa, qālū lā takhaf innā ursilnā ilā qawmi Lūṭ
"When he saw that their hands did not reach it, he found them strange, and a fear of them entered him. 'Do not be afraid,' they said, 'we have been sent to the people of Lot.'"
This moment was treated at al-Dhāriyāt 51/27-28, and I rely on that treatment. In summary, the entries there were these:
What Abraham notices, that is, is concrete: the hands do not reach out. In Arab custom a guest's refusal of food is a grave sign: to eat is to make a bond with the host. A man who refuses the food is saying that he does not want that bond. Abraham's fear, that is, is not an idle fear but a correct inference. أَوْجَسَ — root و-ج-س: wajs is a faint, barely perceptible sound; awjasa — he felt it within. The fear here is not terror but an intimation. The fear of the prophets is not presented in the Qurʾān as a fault; it is recorded as a human reaction. And the angels' answer does not rebuke the fear.
And in al-Dhāriyāt this verse (Hūd 11/70) was already cited.
One — in Hūd there is one more verb: nakirahum. The root ن-ك-ر — not to recognise, to find strange — was treated at al-Dhāriyāt 51/25 (qawmun munkarūn).
| al-Dhāriyāt 51/25 | Hūd 11/70 | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the root stands | At the start of the scene — at the door | In the middle of the scene — at the table |
| What is found strange | Their identity — qawmun munkarūn | Their behaviour — nakirahum |
In al-Dhāriyāt, that is, the strangeness is noticed at the entrance; in Hūd at the table. This is a difference that can be verified from the text.
Two — in Hūd the angels' answer contains a ground: innā ursilnā ilā qawmi Lūṭ. In al-Dhāriyāt this information is given later (51/32).
I record this as an observation about the word order: Hūd gives the information at once — because this section of the sūra is moving towards the narrative of Lot. al-Dhāriyāt delays the scene, because there the subject is the receiving of guests itself.