Apparent Contradiction In The Story Prophet Lut In Surah Hijr & Hud
Jazakallah for your answer. This is definitely helpful. Thanks for referencing the Al Bayan annotation. It does clarify the actual order of events, i.e. that the townspeople rushed to Prophet Lot before the angels revealed their identity. I have three questions on this for my understanding – a) If we didn’t have the other version of this story in Surah Hud, what’s the possibility of interpreting the story in this way, i.e. not assuming the flow of events to be chronological, or not take the و to signal order of events. I am asking this to know if there is anything else in the language of the verses or the way it is presented that suggests this interpretation, or if this is being done only to reconcile with the information from the other verse. Or to put it differently, if someone with good knowledge of classical Arabic was reading just this verse, how likely are they to conclude or consider the possibility of this being the order of events? b) Could you refer to (or point me to) other examples in the Quran, particularly when it’s telling a story where a non-chronological style has been adopted in the narration? In general, I understand that things like flashbacks, etc are common in many forms of literature, but an out-of-order telling of a short episode that takes place over a day seems unconventional. c) What could be the value of adopting such a style, in particular in this context?