ABSTRACT
Although, on the whole, the Qurʾānic story of the destruction of Sodom has the same skeleton as its Biblical antecedent, it is nonetheless a different story; for one thing, in the Qurʾān Lot is considered a messenger of God ( rasūl ). In this study, however, we are concerned with examining a shared narrative element between the two stories, namely the episode in which Lot offers his daughters to the Sodomites in order to persuade them not to sexually abuse his male guests. 2 The Qurʾān recounts this episode in only three verses: Qurʾān 15:71 and Qurʾān 11:78-79. In the next few pages, I intend to apply intertextual analysis to these verses. 3 The principal purpose is to explore the discourse between the Qurʾān and its cultural milieu in a way that best describes the successive emergence of these verses in the text as well as their signifi cance. 4 Near the end of the chapter, I will
assess the early Muslim exegetical material pertaining to these verses and compare it to the intertextual readings I presented.
