And when there remained after this only the news of the messengers with Lut, blessings and peace be upon him, he said, leaning on what you estimate: Then they parted from him and went to the city in which Lut, blessings and peace be upon him, was. Indicating by shifting from 'fa' to 'wa' that there is distance between the two places: 'And when.' And he established [what is depicted as] the source particle for what the purpose of the Surah necessitated, and most of its contexts are between the facilitation in the station of testing and striving in forbidding the immoral. And for this reason, he mentioned here in the story of Ibrahim, blessings and peace be upon him, the killing and burning, and his glad tidings were followed by the destruction of the unjust village. He said: 'When our messengers came to Lut,' meaning: those who are honored by us, 'he was grieved,' meaning: he experienced distress 'because of them' at the first moments of their arrival to him, and when they came to him, the distress certainly surprised him when he saw their handsome forms, and he feared for his people from them, while he thought that they were just people. This is because 'that' in such a case is a connection [even if its origin is the source] to confirm the existence of the two actions in an orderly manner, the existence of one upon the other in two adjacent times with no separation between them. For they were present in one part of time. Ibn Hisham said in the Mughni, the meaning of which is that the reason for this is that the addition confirms the meaning of what was brought to confirm it, and when it restricts the occurrence of the second action immediately after the first and arranges it upon it, the additional particle confirms that. 'And he was distressed by them,' meaning: by the actions of the means in repelling them, 'as much as he could,' as has been clarified and the saying has been elaborated upon in Surah Hud, blessings and peace be upon him. The origin of this is that whoever has a long arm attains what a short arm cannot reach, so it was made a parable for incapacity and ability. This is because they came to him in the form of very handsome young men, and he knew the matter of the people of the village in such a case and did not know that they were the messengers of Allah. And when the estimation was: They said to him: O Lut! Indeed, we are the messengers of your Lord, so relieve yourself from this distress that we see upon you, for we were not sent except for their destruction. He added to his words: 'And they said,' meaning: when they saw what he faced in his matter: 'Do not fear,' meaning: from them reaching us or from you or anyone among your followers being destroyed. 'And do not grieve,' meaning: for anyone among those whom we will destroy, for there is no good in any of them that you would regret because of it. Then they justified that by saying, exaggerating in affirming it to replace lengthy phrases, indicating that the time was pressing and could not bear prolongation: 'Indeed, we will save you,' meaning: we are emphatic in saving you 'and your family,' meaning: and we will destroy the people of this village, so do not let your mind think that they will reach us. And they said: 'Except your wife,' specifying every individual among them except her; then they indicated her destruction by saying in response to someone who might have asked: What about her? It was said: 'She was among those who remained behind,' meaning: as if this judgment was inherent in her original creation.