AND WHEN the messengers [of God] came to the house of Lot, 61 He said: Lo! ye are folk unknown (to me). 62 They said: Nay, we have come to you with that about which they disputed. 63 And we have brought unto thee the truth, and verily we say sooth. 64 so leave with your family some time in the latter part of the night, and walk behind them. Let none of you look back. Go where you are commanded." 65 And We made known this decree to him, that the root of those (sinners) was to be cut off in the early morning. 66 And there came the people of the city rejoicing 67 Said Lot: "These are my guests; do not put me to shame, 68 And keep your duty to Allah, and shame me not! 69 They said: "Did we not forbid thee (to speak) for all and sundry?" 70 Lot exclaimed in exasperation: "If you are bent on doing something, then here are my daughters." 71 [But the angels spoke thus:] "As thou livest, [O Lot, they will not listen to thee:] behold, in their delirium [of lust] they are but blindly stumbling to and fro!" 72 And thereupon the blast [of Our punishment] overtook them at the time of sunrise, 73 And We turned (the cities) upside down, and rained down on them brimstones hard as baked clay. 74 Surely in that are signs for such as mark; 75 for, behold, those [towns] stood by a road that still exists. 76 Verily in that is a sign for the believers. 77 And the dwellers in the wood indeed were evil-doers. 78 So We took vengeance on them. And verily both are on a high-road open. 79