Home > Torah - Genesis Stories in the Quran
The biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:1-26 primarily highlights the sexual aggression of the town's men toward Lot's angelic guests and God's judgment through fire and brimstone. The escape of Lot's family requires them not to look back, resulting in Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt when she disobeys
The Quran story is different.
Surah 11:77-83 - And when Our messengers came to Lot, he was distressed for them and felt for them great discomfort. They said, "Do not fear, nor grieve. Indeed, we will save you and your family, except your wife; she is to be of those who remain behind. Indeed, we will bring down upon the people of this city punishment from the sky because they have been defiantly disobedient." So when Our command came, We made the highest part [of the city] its lowest and rained upon them stones of layered hard clay, marked from your Lord. And Allah's punishment is not from the wrongdoers [very] far.
The Book of Genesis (Genesis 19) focuses almost exclusively on the sexual aggression of the town's inhabitants toward Lot's angelic guests. Other socio-economic sins (such as pride, excess food, and ignoring the poor) are only introduced in later biblical books like Ezekiel (16:48–50) and are absent from the original narrative.
The Quran and classical Islamic Tafsir shift the primary offense away from sexual indecency toward communal cruelty, economic oppression, and the abuse of travelers/foreigners.
The Quran adds a unique theological claim that the people of Lot were the first in human history to engage in homosexual acts (Surah 7:80 / 29:28)—a detail that appears neither in the Bible nor in Jewish rabbinic writings.
Highway Robbery & Taxes:
Classical Islamic commentators (Tabari, Qurtubi, Ibn Abbas) explicitly describe the people of Sodom as "highwaymen" and "robbers" who systematically abused wayfarers and imposed oppressive taxes on passersby.
Forbidding Hospitality:
Both Islamic commentaries and Talmudic lore state that the townspeople publicly legislated against showing kindness or hospitality to guests, forbidding Lot from hosting anyone.
The Talmudic Source:
In the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 109a), the rabbis re-frame Sodom's primary wickedness around economic greed and xenophobia, detailing how they appointed corrupt judges to rob travelers and actively punished those who gave charity.
The Quran's portrayal of Sodom’s sins is not derived from the Book of Genesis. By centering the city's wickedness on economic oppression, highway robbery, and laws forbidding hospitality—while asserting they were the first to commit homosexual acts—the Quran reflects late-antique Jewish rabbinic folklore (specifically the Babylonian Talmud) rather than the original biblical narrative. The author of the Quran (Muhammad) mistakes the Talmudic story as being from the Torah.