Abu Lahab

Abū Lahab (Arabic: أبو لهب) (c. 549–624 CE), full name ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (Arabic: عبد العزى ابن عبد المطلب), was the Islamic prophet Muhammad's half paternal uncle, as well as the husband of Umm Jamil. He was one of the Meccan Qurayshi leaders who opposed Muhammad, and was condemned in surah Al-Masad of the Quran.

Quotes

• Perish you, Mohammad! Did you invite us here for this?
  • Said to Muhammad on Mount Safa. As cited in Ali Dashti: Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad, p. 29.

Quotes about Abu Lahab

See also: Al-Masad (Wikipedia)

"May the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and he ˹himself˺ perish!" (Quran 111:1)

• تَبَّتْ يَدَآ أَبِى لَهَبٍۢ وَتَبَّ مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥ وَمَا كَسَبَ سَيَصْلَىٰ نَارًۭا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍۢ وَٱمْرَأَتُهُۥ حَمَّالَةَ ٱلْحَطَبِ فِى جِيدِهَا حَبْلٌۭ مِّن مَّسَدٍۭ
  • Quran 111:1–5
  • Translation:
    • May the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and he ˹himself˺ perish! Neither his wealth nor ˹worldly˺ gains will benefit him. He will burn in a flaming Fire, and ˹so will˺ his wife, the carrier of ˹thorny˺ kindling, around her neck will be a rope of palm-fibre.
      • The Clear Quran by Dr. Mustafa Khattab

• After preaching Islam in secret and among a small circle for some time, Mohammad … summoned the Qoraysh chiefs to a meeting on the hill of Safa, and when all were assembled, besought them to embrace Islam. From their midst Abu Lahab stood up and shouted angrily, "Perish you, Mohammad! Did you invite us here for this?" The answer to Abu Lahab's challenge came in verse 1 of sura 111 (ol-Masad), in which the same Arabic word meaning "perish" appears: "Perish Abu Lahab's hands, and may he (himself) perish!" Abu Lahab was proud of his wealth and children. God said, "His wealth will not give him security, nor will the gains that he has made. He will roast in a flaming fire" (verses 2 and 3). Nor would his wife, Omm Jomayyel, who had strewn thorns in the Prophet's path, be left unpunished: "And his wife, the carrier of the firewood sticks, will have a rope of palm fiber on her neck."
  • Ali Dashti: Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad, p. 29

• Ali Dashti also considers sura 111 as the words of Muhammad on the grounds that these words are unworthy of God: "It ill becomes the Sustainer of the Universe to curse an ignorant Arab and call his wife a firewood carrier." The short sura refers to Abu Lahab, the Prophet's uncle, who was one of Muhammad's bitterest opponents: "The hands of Abu Lahab shall perish, and he shall perish. His riches shall not profit him, neither that which he has gained. He shall go down to be burned into flaming fire, and his wife also, bearing wood having on her neck a cord of twisted fibres of a palm tree." Either these are Muhammad's words or God is fond of rather feeble puns, since "Abu Lahab" means "father of flames."
  • Ibn Warraq: Why I Am Not a Muslim, ch. 5: "The Koran", p. 106

See also

• Jahannam
• Umm Jamil