Quran Universe
15:59

إِلَّآ ءَالَ لُوطٍ إِنَّا لَمُنَجُّوهُمۡ أَجۡمَعِينَ

Illa ala lootin inna lamunajjoohum ajmaAAeena

Except the family of Lot; indeed, we will save them all

Word by word
  1. إِلَّآExcept
  2. ءَالَthe family
  3. لُوطٍof Lut
  4. إِنَّاindeed,we
  5. لَمُنَجُّوهُمۡsurely will save them
  6. أَجۡمَعِينَall
Al-Hijr · 15:59Makkah

In a whole guilty town, one family was saved.

Lut's family, set apart

Who is spared
the towna guilty people
except
Lut's familyall to be saved
Being surrounded
everyone does itso I will be swept along
one family stood apartand Allah saved them

The angels said they would save the family of Lut, all of them, from among that people. Ibn Kathir notes it plainly: the family was rescued while the town was not. Allah sees one household even in a whole town gone wrong.

Your workplace runs on small lies. Your neighborhood on gossip. Your friend group on things you are uneasy with. It feels like you will be swept along. Allah sees the one who holds a different line.

If everyone around me is doing it, I will go down with them anyway.

Allah singles out the people who stay upright, even when they are surrounded.

Try this

Hold one small line today that your surroundings push against, quietly and kindly.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (shared passage from 15:57)

He said: "What then is the business for which you have come, O messengers? (57)They said: "We have been sent to a guilty people. (58)"(All) except the family of Lut, all of whom we are to save (from the destruction). (59)"Except for his wife, of whom We have decreed that she shall be of those who remain behind. (60)

The Reason why the Angels came

Allah tells us that after Ibrahim had calmed down from the excitement of this good news, he started to ask them why they had come to him. They said,

إِنَّا أُرْسِلْنَا إِلَىٰ قَوْمٍ مُّجْرِمِينَ

(We have been sent to a guilty people.) meaning the people of Lut. They told him that they were going to save the family of Lut from among those people, except for his wife, because she was one of those who were doomed. Thus it was said,

إِلَّا امْرَأَتَهُ قَدَّرْنَا ۙ إِنَّهَا لَمِنَ الْغَابِرِينَ

(Except for his wife, of whom We have decreed that she shall be of those who remain behind.) i.e., she was one of those who would be left behind and will be destroyed.