وَلَمَّا جَآءَتْ رُسُلُنَا لُوطًا سِىٓءَ بِهِمْ وَضَاقَ بِهِمْ ذَرْعًا وَقَالَ هَٰذَا يَوْمٌ عَصِيبٌ
"When Our messengers came to Lot he was distressed on their account, his powers were straitened by them, and he said: 'This is a hard day.'"
And the difference between the two scenes must be recorded: the same messengers go to two houses and meet two different responses.
| Abraham (69-70) | Lot (77) | |
|---|---|---|
| The first reaction | qāla salām and a calf | sīʾa bihim wa ḍāqa bihim dharʿā |
| When the fear comes | Afterwards — when the hands do not reach out | At once — when they arrive |
| Fear of what | The identity of the guests | What will happen to the guests |
| What is said | — | hādhā yawmun ʿaṣīb |
I record this as an observation about the word order: both prophets are receiving people they do not know. What makes the difference is not the guests but the surroundings.
The root ذ-ر-ع: the arm; and a measure of the length of an arm (dhirāʿ — a cubit). The Turkish unit of length arşın is attached to this root.
And the concrete picture in the idiom must be recorded, and this is an observation about the language: in Arabic ḍāqa dharʿuhū — "his arm was straitened" — means that a person has not the power to do a thing. Its source is the situation of a man who cannot get his arms around a load.
| Idiom | The concrete picture | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| ḍāqa dharʿan | The arms do not reach | He has not the power, he is at a loss |
And dharʿan is in the accusative as a specifier (tamyīz): "he was straitened as to his arm". This is a grammatical note.
The same root, two messengers. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text, and it ties the sūra's opening sentence to the narrative.
The root ع-ص-ب: to bind, to wrap, to knot. From the same root come ʿiṣāba (a headband), ʿaṣaba (a person's kin on the father's side — those bound to one another) and ʿaṣab (a nerve, a sinew).
And the picture in the word is worth recording: for a day to be "knotted" is for the way out to be closed.