Verses 1–5
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful
This sūrah was revealed in Mecca and consists of 5 verses. It is a severe warning to Abū Lahab and his wife for destroying themselves, ruining their deeds, and heading for hell.
Commentary
تَبَّتْ يَدَا أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ ١
(111:1) Perish (tabbat, from tabb and tabāb) the hands of Abū Lahab, and perish he (tabba)!
There are a number of meanings offered for tabb and tabāb:
- “Loss and destruction,” according to al-Jawharī.
- “Perpetual loss,” according to al-Rāghib.
- “Failure.”
- “Being devoid of any good.”
All these meanings are very close. The hand is the limb by which one seeks one’s goals, and to which the majority of one’s acts are ascribed. The “tabāb (failure, destruction) of hands” is a way of saying that one’s efforts and actions—which one typically does with one’s hands—result in a loss. In other words, the deeds which one performs by one’s hands are rendered void. Their deeds do not give the desired outcome, and the person does not find any benefit from them. The second tabba indicates a loss of oneself, where one loses one’s soul due to being deprived from eternal happiness. That amounts to everlasting destruction.
Perish the hands of Abū Lahab, and perish he: Given the above, there are two possible interpretations for this verse: (1) It is an imprecation against Abū Lahab, saying: “May he be destroyed! May his attempts to put out the light of prophethood be in vain!” (2) It describes God’s judgment against him.
The chapter is about Abū Lahab b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, who was the Prophet’s uncle and a relentless enemy of his. He persistently denied the Prophet and did not hesitate to do anything within his ability to harass God’s Messenger, both verbally and practically. He is the one who told the Prophet, “May you perish” (tabban laka) when the Prophet called his relatives to Islam the first time. Thus this chapter was revealed, where God returned his imprecation to him.
Here are some views concerning his name:
- Abū Lahab was his given name, even though it is in the form of a kunyah (title).
- His name was ʿAbd al-ʿUzzá.
- His name was ʿAbd Manāf.
- His real name was ʿAbd al-ʿUzzá (lit. servant of ʿUzzá), but that is not mentioned here because ʿUzzá was a pagan idol. God did not want to refer to someone as a servant of another god—even if that was their name—because everyone is a servant of Allah.
- The use of kunyah here—instead of his given name—is derogatory because Abū Lahab literally means “Father of flame.”
Comment: The last view is the most plausible explanation. Abū Lahab suggests some connection with fire flames (sing. lahab). This is like some people being nicknamed “Abū al-Khayr” (Father of Good), “Abū al-Faḍl” (Father of Virtue) or “Abū al-Sharr” (Father of Evil) because they are associated with good, virtue or evil, respectively. Therefore, when we read below: Soon he will enter a blazing fire (), it is like saying: “Perish the hands of this hellish man! And may the flames of hell adhere to him.”
مَا أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَسَبَ ٢
(111:2) His wealth availed him not (mā aghnā), nor what he had earned (mā kasaba).
The verse’s meaning is: “Neither his wealth nor his deeds—or the consequences of his deeds—will protect him from the destruction of his soul and his hands.” This is a destruction which is either decreed against him, or imprecated against him.
سَيَصْلَىٰ نَارًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ ٣
(111:3) Soon he will enter (sa-yaṣlá) a blazing fire,
The verb yaṣlá means yadkhulu (he enters). A blazing fire is the eternal fire of hell. The indefinite form of a blazing fire emphasizes its immensity and horror.
وَامْرَأَتُهُ حَمَّالَةَ الْحَطَبِ ٤
(111:4) and his wife [too], the firewood carrier (ḥammālat al-ḥaṭab),
The conjunction “and” at the beginning of this verse connects his wife to the pronoun in the last verse: Soon he will enter (). The meaning is: “His wife will also soon enter…”
فِي جِيدِهَا حَبْلٌ مِنْ مَسَدٍ ٥
(111:5) with a rope of palm fiber (masad) around her neck.
Masad is “a rope made of twisted fibers.” His wife used to carry thorny branches and similar annoyances, and cast them on the path of the Prophet at night to harass him.
Apparently what is meant by these two verses [] is that when she enters hellfire on the Day of Resurrection, she will be in the same form that she used to be in this world. She will be punished in hell while she carries firewood, with a rope of palm fiber around her neck.
Majmaʿ al-bayān says:
Question: Was it still incumbent on Abū Lahab to believe after the revelation of this sūrah? And could he believe? If he believed, would he not be proving God’s revelation wrong, for He says: Soon he will enter a blazing fire ()?
Response: It was still obligatory for him to believe, because that is irrevocable. However, the threats in this chapter are conditional on his refraining to believe.
This question is based on a flawed premise. It misses the fact that God’s irrevocable decree applies to voluntary human actions. Therefore, the divine decree does not negate or nullify free will, nor coerce one to do a certain act out of compulsion. When God wills a voluntary agent to do something, He wills the person to do so by their volition. If they perform the act by being transformed into an involuntary being, then God’s will is not fulfilled [because His will was for the act to be done by a voluntary agent]. That is an impossibility. And if the act which is firmly decreed by God is to be done by choice, then the person also has the choice not to do it, even though in reality they perform the act. The reader should reflect on this. We have already discussed this in several places.
Therefore, we can say that Abū Lahab could have believed and saved himself from the fire, but he chose not to do so. It was irrevocably decreed for him to enter hell due to his voluntary denial.
The same idea can be seen in other verses which forecast the denial of the disbelievers among the Quraysh, such as: As for the faithless, it is the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not have faith (); The word has certainly become due against most of them, so they will not have faith (). The same applies to verses which discuss the sealing of hearts.
Examining Narrations
- Concerning and warn the nearest of your kin () Ibn ʿAbbās said: When this verse was revealed, the Prophet climbed Mount al-Ṣafā and said: “Urgent news!”
The Quraysh gathered around him and said: “What is it?”
“If I were to tell you that an enemy is about to attack you the next morning or evening, would you believe me?”
“Of course we would.”
“In that case,” he said, “I’m here to warn you of an intense imminent torment.”
“May you perish!” Abū Lahab retorted. “Is this why you gathered us all around?”
Thus God revealed: Perish the hands of Abū Lahab… ().
- Ṭāriq al-Muḥāribī said: I was in Dhū al-Majāz market, when I came across a young man saying: “O people! Say, ‘There is no god but God’ (lā ilāh illā Allāh), and you shall be delivered.” I saw another man following him and pelting him [with rocks]. The young man’s calves and heels were bleeding because of that. The older man was crying: “Hey everyone! This man is a liar! Don’t believe what he says.”
“Who is this?” I inquired.
They said: “This [younger man] is Muḥammad, who believes to be a prophet. And this [older man] is his uncle Abū Lahab, who believes that he is a liar.”
- Imam al-Kāẓim said: One of the Prophet’s miracles was when Umm Jamīl, the wife of Abū Lahab, came to him after Chapter 111 was revealed. Abū Bakr b. Abī Quḥāfah, who was with the Prophet, said: “O Messenger of God, here comes Umm Jamīl, looking for you enraged. She is carrying a rock that she is planning to throw at you.”
“She cannot see me,” the Prophet assured him.
She came forward and asked Abū Bakr, “Where’s your buddy?”
“Wherever God wills him to be.”
“I’m looking for him. If I see him, I shall definitely stone him for he has vilified me. By al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzá, I’m a poetess [and can easily retaliate].”
Then [when she left] Abū Bakr asked: “O Messenger of God, didn’t she see you?”
“No. God cast a veil between me and her.”
Author’s comment: Similar accounts to this are also reported through several Sunni chains of transmission.
- Concerning and his wife [too], the firewood carrier () Tafsīr al-Qummī says: She was Umm Jamīl, the daughter of Ṣakhr. She used to gossip about the Messenger of God and transmit his news to the disbelievers.
The meaning would be: “God has decreed that Abū Lahab’s efforts would be ineffective, and himself would end up in wretchedness.” (Ed.) ↩︎
The first particle mā is negative (nāfiyah, meaning not). The second mā can be either relative (mawṣūlah, meaning what) or serve to turn the verb that follows it into a verbal noun (called maṣdariyyah). In the first case, ma kasaba would mean “what he acquired through his deeds,” which would be the results and consequences of his deeds. In the second case, ma kasaba would mean “his acquisition,” which would be his very deeds. (Auth.) ↩︎
The last part of the verse—ḥammālata al-ḥaṭab (the firewood carrier)—is an adjective for his wife. Therefore, the word ḥammālah (carrier) should have been marfūʿ in terms of inflection (ḥammālatu), in compliance with the noun which it describes. However, it is manṣūb (in the accusative form), making it the object of an omitted verb that indicates rebuke. The implied meaning is: “I condemn the firewood carrier.” Some exegetes have suggested that the firewood carrier is a ḥāl (circumstantial qualifier, participial phrase, adverb) for his wife. This is a subtle and elegant meaning, which we will interpret under the next verse. This would make the next verse a second ḥāl for his wife. (Auth.) ↩︎
See verses and , and number 3 under Chapter 91’s examination of narrations, above. Also see volume 1, pp. 143 and 162ff of the English translation, under verses and ; volume 2, pp. 209ff and 271-272, under verses and ; volume 13, pp. 25ff and 81ff, under verses and ; volume 15, p. 65, under verses ; volume 39, p. 160, under verse ; p. 200, under verse ; pp. 233-234 under verse . (Ed.) ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān. This is also narrated in the tafsīr of the current chapter, on the authority of Saʿīd b. Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, without associating the call with the revelation of the verse: and warn the nearest of your kin (). ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān. ↩︎
Qurb al-Isnād, via its chain of narration, part of a longer hadith. ↩︎
This is a mistake. Umm Jamīl was the sister of Ṣakhr (Abū Sufyān) and the daughter of Ḥarb. (Ed.). ↩︎
This means that firewood carrier is a metaphor for one who kindles the fire of conflict and animosity among others through gossip. This is a common metaphor in Middle Eastern literature. (Ed.) ↩︎