Investigating the verses of Lut

Pre-history

References to same-sex relationships, behaviors, and roles appear in texts and records older than the Torah. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria – 3rd–2nd millennium BCE)

Inanna/Ishtar hymns: The goddess is associated with gender variance and same-sex love. Priests (the gala) sometimes assumed female roles and engaged in homoerotic practices.

Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE): The Epic depicts Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s bond in terms that many scholars read as having erotic undertones.

Law codes (Middle Assyrian Laws, c. 1100 BCE): Contain explicit rules about male–male sexual acts, usually in terms of status, consent, and humiliation rather than morality.

2. Ancient Egypt (3rd–2nd millennium BCE)

The Story of Horus and Seth (Chester Beatty Papyrus, c. 1200 BCE): Tells of Seth attempting to assert dominance by penetrating Horus. The context is political power and shame, not sexuality per se.

Tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep (c. 2400 BCE): Two men depicted in poses usually reserved for husband and wife. Often interpreted as a same-sex couple, though some argue they were brothers.

3. Hittite Laws (c. 1650–1500 BCE, Anatolia)

Contain references to sexual acts, including bestiality and incest, but strikingly do not criminalize male–male intercourse—suggesting it was not seen as problematic.

4. South Asia (Indus Valley traditions, early Vedic texts, c. 1500 BCE and later)

The earliest Vedas are not explicit, but later Hindu texts (such as portions of the Kama Sutra, c. 3rd century CE) openly discuss same-sex relations. There are hints in earlier mythic traditions of gender fluidity and same-sex bonds among deities.

5. Early Greek sources (pre-Torah contemporaries, Mycenaean period and Homeric epics c. 8th century BCE)

Homer’s Iliad (older oral tradition than its 8th-century writing) depicts Achilles and Patroclus in a relationship often interpreted as homoerotic.

📌 Pre-Historical Summary:

Same-sex relationships are referenced in sources far older than the Torah (c. 1200–500 BCE). The earliest clear references are from Mesopotamia and Egypt (3rd–2nd millennium BCE), where same-sex acts were described in myths, law codes, and funerary art. The Torah, by contrast, is one of the first scriptures to explicitly frame male–male sex as a prohibition.

A video summary

Decoding the verses of Lut, especially 7:80

Here, we have a Qur’an-by-Qur’an (QbQ) investigation of 7:80 in light of what we know about earlier references to same-sex relations.

Step 1: Text of 7:80 in Arabic

وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلْفَـٰحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِّنَ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

Step 2: Key terms

• لوطًا (Lūṭan) – Proper name, prophet to his people.

• أَتَأْتُونَ (ata’tūna) – “Do you approach / commit / go to.” A verb of intentional action.

• ٱلْفَـٰحِشَةَ (al-fāḥishah) – “The outrageous act / lewdness / excessive indecency.” Root f-ḥ-sh = something grossly improper, beyond accepted limits.

• مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا (mā sabaqakum bihā) – “None before you ever preceded you in this.”

• مِّنَ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ (mina l-‘ālamīn) – “From among all peoples.”

Step 3: Internal Qur’anic Cross-References (QbQ)

• 29:28–29: Lūṭ asks his people, “Do you commit al-fāḥishah while you see?” Context adds “approaching men instead of women” and highway corruption.

• 26:165–166: “Do you approach males of the worlds and leave what your Lord created for you of your mates?” → clarifies the fāḥishah as male–male sexual pursuit.

• 27:54–55: Adds emphasis: “Do you indeed approach men lustfully instead of women? You are a people ignorant.”

• 4:15–16: Use of fāḥishah for other kinds of sexual misconduct, not only Lūṭ’s people. It’s a broad term for gross sexual excess, context-specific.

Step 4: Meaning in 7:80 within Qur’an

• The verse charges Lūṭ’s people with committing fāḥishah, here specified later in Qur’an as male–male sexual acts pursued in excess.

• The phrase “never before you” implies a novelty or extremity in their practice, not necessarily that same-sex relations had never existed (since we know from history and scripture they did). The emphasis is that this community’s collective, public indulgence was unprecedented.

• Later verses (e.g. 29:29) also link their actions to cutting off travelers and open corruption, so the focus is wider than private same-sex relations—it points to predatory, coercive, and socially destructive acts.

Step 5: In light of older records

Since Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and other traditions reference same-sex relations long before the Torah and Qur’an, 7:80 cannot be claiming absolute novelty in human history. Instead, within Qur’an’s logic, “no one before you” refers to:

1. No prior community had normalized and publicized this specific form of fāḥishah as a collective practice.

2. Their behavior went beyond intimacy to include coercion, humiliation, and social disorder (supported by 29:29)

   
   

✅ QbQ Conclusion for 7:80: The verse says Lūt’s people committed an outrageous act (fāhishah)—later clarified as male–male pursuit in a predatory, excessive way—that no earlier community had made their defining social practice. The Qur’an frames it not as a private orientation issue, but as a public, aggressive, socially corrupt behavior. The historical existence of same-sex relations in older cultures doesn’t contradict this; rather, it sharpens the Qur’anic point: what was unprecedented was the scale, shamelessness, and violent/socially disruptive form of the act.

Linguistic investigation into the particle بل “bal”

A QbQ investigation into the particle, specifically in 7:80-81, 26:165-166, and 27:54-55

1. Function of بَلْ

• Root: ب ل.

• Particle of transition/contrast.

• Used to correct, rebut, or shift emphasis.

• Meanings vary by context:

  • Rather / But instead (contradicting what precedes).

  • Nay (emphatic rebuttal).

  • Sometimes adds force by contrasting the reality with what is assumed.

2. Occurrences in Lūt’s verses

7:80–81

أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلْفَـٰحِشَةَ … إِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ ٱلرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ ٱلنِّسَآءِ ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِفُونَ

• bal antum qawmun mus'rifūn

• Here bal shifts the charge: not only do you pursue men instead of women, but rather, you are a people given to excess (isrāf = overstepping bounds, wasteful excess).

• Bal intensifies: the problem is not just the act, but their extreme, reckless character.

26:165–166

أَتَأْتُونَ ٱلذُّكْرَانَ … وَتَذَرُونَ مَا خَلَقَ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّنْ أَزْوَٰجِكُم ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ عَادُونَ

• bal antum qawmun ʿādūn

• After asking: “Do you approach men… and abandon what God created for you of spouses (wives)?”

• Bal pivots: it’s not simply misplaced desire, rather, you are a people transgressing (ʿādūn = overstepping limits, aggressors).

• Again, the shift reframes from the sexual act to a deeper indictment of the people’s character.

27:54–55

أَئِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ ٱلرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ ٱلنِّسَآءِ ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ

• bal antum qawmun tajhalūn

• After: “Do you indeed approach men lustfully instead of women?”

• Bal adds: rather, you are a people acting in ignorance (jahl = lack of awareness, moral blindness).

• The emphasis shifts from lust to their ignorance of consequences and divine order.

3. Pattern Across the Passages

• 7:81 → mus'rifūn (excessive, wasteful, overstepping bounds).

• 26:166 → ʿādūn (transgressors, aggressors).

• 27:55 → tajhalūn (ignorant, blind, foolish).

The bal construction works like a refrain:

• “It’s not only that you pursue men… rather, you are a people [X].”

• It reframes each time, shifting from the act to a moral diagnosis of the people: excess → transgression → ignorance.

4. QbQ Insight

• Bal here doesn’t negate same-sex pursuit; it amplifies the charge.

• It shows that the Qur’an views the fāḥishah not as an isolated act, but as a symptom of wider corruption: excess, aggression, ignorance.

• This matches 29:29, where Lūṭ accuses them also of cutting off the road and committing evil in gatherings. Their misconduct was a package of social and sexual corruption.

  
  

✅ Conclusion: 

In these verses, بَلْ (bal) acts as a rhetorical pivot. It takes the accusation beyond the specific act (male–male pursuit) to a deeper critique of the community’s moral state: extravagant excess (7:81), transgression (26:166), and ignorance (27:55). The Qur’an’s use of bal shows the focus is less on condemning orientation, and more on condemning collective corruption and aggressive, ignorant behavior.