Wife of Lut

The wife of Prophet Lut AS is mentioned in the Quran as a warning example alongside the wife of Nuh AS: 'Allah presents an example of those who disbelieved: the wife of Nuh and the wife of Lut. They were under two of Our righteous servants but betrayed them' (Surah al-Tahrim 66:10). Her betrayal was not of a personal or marital nature but of the mission of her husband. When the angels came to Lut in the form of handsome young men, she informed the people of Sodom about the guests — knowing what the people of Sodom intended. Lut AS was in great distress when his people rushed to his house, trying to force their way in to reach his guests. He pleaded with them, offering his daughters in lawful marriage, but they refused. The angels revealed themselves to Lut, told him to leave with his family before morning, and warned him not to look back and not to take his wife — 'for indeed, what strikes them is to strike her.' When the punishment fell upon the people of Sodom, she looked back and was destroyed with them. The Quran uses her story to illustrate the principle that proximity to righteousness, or even being the household member of a prophet, provides no protection when one's heart is allied with falsehood. The covenant of marriage does not override the covenant of faith. Her story is paired with that of Asiyah (wife of Pharaoh) — the believer in the household of the worst disbeliever — to show that each soul stands alone before Allah.