Fama wajadna feeha ghayra baytin mina almuslimeen (surah zariyat: 36)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(51:36) ' and We did not find there any, apart from a single house of Muslims  *34'

Famaa wajadnaa feehaa ghaira baitim minal muslimeen

*34) That is, "Among the whole nation and in the entire land there was only one house that shone with the light of the Faith and Islam, and it was no other but the house of the Prophet Lot himself. The rest of the entire nation was sunk , deep in sin and wickedness and its whole country was brimming over with filth and immorality. Therefore Allah rescued the people of that one house and then sent down the torment on the land, which did not spare any one of the wicked people. In this verse three important themes have been discussed:
(1) That Allah's law of retribution does not decree the total destruction of a nation as long as there remains a considerable element of good in it. As against the majority of the bad people if it still contains a small element of those who continue trying to invite others to the right way, Allah gives it an opportunity to work, and goes on increasing the respite of the nation which is not yet wholly devoid of goodness. But in case theca remains no element of goodness at all in the nation, Allah's law is that He somehow rescues by His power and grace some of the good people, who might have become weary and helpless fighting evil in its settlements, and deals with the rest as every sensible master would deal with his rotten fruit.
(2) That "Muslim" is not the name only of the people who arc the followers of the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be Allah's peace) but of all the Prophets before him and their followers who were also Muslims. Their religions were not mutually exclusive that one might be the religion of the Prophet Abraham, another of the Prophet Moses and still another of the Prophet Jesus, but they all were Muslims and their religion was this same Islam. This truth has been explained at several places in the Qur'an and there is no room for ambiguity in this regard. For instance, sec AIBaqarah: 128, 131-132; Al-'Imran: 67: Al-Ma'idah: 44, 111; Yunus: 72,84; Yusuf: 101; AI-A'raf: 126; An-Naml: 31, 42, 44.
(3) That the words `Mu 'min " and Muslim " have been used as synonyms in this verse. If this verse is read with verse 14 of Al-Hujurat, the error of the thinking of those people becomes obvious, who regard Mu 'min and Muslim as two independent terms of the Qur'an, which have been used in one and the same meaning every where, and Muslim is necessarily used for the person who might have entered the fold of Islam by professing the Faith only verbally, without true faith. (For further explanation, see E. N . 31 of Surah AI-Hujurat).