Also known as Sūrah Al-Lahab · The 111th chapter of the Qur'an · 5 verses · Revealed in Makkah · Juz' 30
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Understanding each key word of the Sūrah.
تَبَّتْ (Tabbat) — "May it perish / be ruined / be cut off." A du'ā of destruction, indicating complete loss and failure. It is also read as a statement of fact: it has already perished.
يَدَا (Yadā) — "The two hands of." In Arabic, the hands represent a person's power, effort, and agency. Cursing the hands is cursing everything Abu Lahab did and tried to do.
أَبِي لَهَبٍ (Abī Lahab) — "Abu Lahab" means Father of Flame — a nickname given to him because of his bright red complexion. Notably, this is the only place in the Qur'an where someone is condemned by their nickname rather than their birth name.
وَتَبَّ (wa tabb) — "And ruined indeed he is." The repetition intensifies the condemnation — first a prayer, then a confirmed fact.
مَآ أَغْنَىٰ (Mā aghnā) — "It will not avail / benefit / protect him." A rhetorical dismissal of all worldly means.
مَالُهُۥ (māluhu) — "His wealth." Abu Lahab was one of the wealthiest men in Makkah. The verse directly addresses his pride and confidence in his riches.
وَمَا كَسَبَ (wa mā kasab) — "And that which he earned / gained." This refers either to his children, his deeds, or his trade profits — all the things a man accumulates and relies upon. None of it will save him.
سَيَصْلَىٰ (Sayaṣlā) — "He will soon burn / enter into." The prefix sa- indicates the near future — it is coming, certainly and soon.
نَارًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ (nāran dhāta lahab) — "A fire possessing flame." Lahab here echoes his very name — Abu Lahab, Father of Flame, will meet his fate in a fire of flame. The word-play is deliberate and devastating.
حَمَّالَةَ الْحَطَبِ (Ḥammālatal-ḥaṭab) — "Carrier of firewood." This has two meanings held together: literally — she used to gather thorns and firewood and scatter them on the paths the Prophet ﷺ would walk, to hurt his feet at night. Figuratively — she carried tales (gossip and slander), fuelling the fire of hatred and persecution against Islam. In classical Arabic, a "carrier of firewood" is a well-known idiom for a tale-bearer.
جِيدِهَا (jīdihā) — "Her neck." The word jīd specifically refers to a beautiful, adorned neck — often used in poetry for a woman's jewelled neck. The contrast is poignant: the neck she adorned with her expensive necklace will carry a rope of coarse fibres in the Fire.
حَبْلٌ مِّن مَّسَدٍ (ḥablum-mim-masad) — "A rope of masad." Masad is palm fibre — the coarsest, roughest rope material, used for binding heavy burdens. The same woman who wore jewels around her neck in this world will be bound with this in the next.
Understanding the context, meaning, and deeper layers of Sūrah Al-Masad.
Sūrah Al-Masad stands as one of the most remarkable passages in the Qur'an — not for its length (it is only five short verses) but for what it does: it names a specific living person, condemns him to hellfire, and in doing so makes a bold prophecy that was fulfilled in history exactly as stated.
It was revealed in the early Makkan period, at a time when the Prophet ﷺ had just begun his public call to Islam. The surah is a direct divine response to the cruelty and arrogance of one of the Prophet's ﷺ closest relatives — a man who should have been his protector but became instead his most bitter enemy within his own family.
"May the hands of Abu Lahab be ruined, and ruined is he. His wealth will not avail him or that which he gained."
Qur'an — Sūrah Al-Masad 111:1–2His real name was ʿAbdul ʿUzzā ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. He was the Prophet's ﷺ paternal uncle — a direct son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet's grandfather, making him blood family of the closest kind. He was a wealthy, powerful, and physically striking man — his nickname Abu Lahab ("Father of Flame") was given because of his radiant, ruddy complexion.
Despite being family — the very uncle who shared the Prophet's ﷺ lineage and grew up in the same household — Abu Lahab was one of the most ferocious enemies Islam ever produced. He did not merely disagree with the Prophet's message. He made the destruction of Islam his personal mission.
He used his wealth, his social standing, and his family authority to actively persecute the early Muslims. He would follow the Prophet ﷺ to markets and public gatherings, calling out to merchants not to trade with him, warning people not to listen to "this madman." He is reported to have thrown animal filth at the Prophet's ﷺ door. He attempted to turn the Prophet's own sons-in-law against him by pressuring them to divorce his daughters.
The tragedy of Abu Lahab is not just that he rejected the message — it is that he had every advantage to receive it. He was educated, powerful, close to the Prophet ﷺ by blood, and present for the years of the dawah. He saw the signs. He heard the words. And he chose hatred.
Abu Lahab died approximately seven days after the Battle of Badr (2 AH / 624 CE) — reportedly from a combination of grief, rage, and a painful skin disease, having heard the news of the crushing defeat of the Qurayshi army in which several of his closest allies perished. He died in disgrace, and it is reported that his own sons were so afraid of the disease that they would not approach his body for three days, until finally forced by shame into burying him in a shallow grave.
Abu Lahab's wife was Arwā bint Ḥarb, known as Umm Jamil — meaning "Mother of Beauty." She was the sister of Abu Sufyān ibn Ḥarb, one of the leaders of Quraysh. She came from one of Makkah's most powerful families and matched her husband in both status and cruelty toward the early Muslims.
The Qur'an describes her as ḥammālatal-ḥaṭab — the carrier of firewood. The scholars of tafsīr explain this in two complementary ways. Physically, she used to gather thorny branches and strew them in the dark on the path the Prophet ﷺ walked, so that he would cut his feet at night. Figuratively, carrying firewood is a classical Arabic expression for a slanderer — one who spreads tales between people, fuelling the fire of discord and hatred.
She wore a prized necklace — a valuable piece of jewellery she was proud of. When this sūrah was revealed and she heard that her neck was mentioned in the Qur'an, she came to the Masjid al-Ḥarām with a handful of stones, enraged, looking for the Prophet ﷺ. Though he was sitting right there with Abu Bakr (RA), Allah veiled her sight and she could not see him. She declared her hatred aloud, said she had heard some "poetry" about her and would use the stones to break the poet's mouth — then left, still unable to see him.
In her neck will be a rope of twisted fibre — the coarsest, roughest material — replacing the jewelled necklace she was so proud of in this world.
Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr — Commentary on Sūrah Al-MasadThe most well-known account of this surah's revelation is narrated in both Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. When the command came to the Prophet ﷺ to call his people publicly to Islam, he climbed to the top of Mount Ṣafā — the hill used by Arabs as a vantage point to call for help in times of emergency — and called out the traditional alarm cry:
"Yā Ṣabāḥāh!" — the traditional Arab cry of warning meaning: "O people, danger is upon you at morning!"
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book of TafsīrThe people of Makkah — hearing the emergency call — gathered at the foot of the mountain. The Prophet ﷺ addressed them, asking: if he were to tell them that an army was about to attack them from behind the mountain, would they believe him? They said yes — for they had never known him to lie.
Then he said: "I am a warner to you before a severe punishment."
Abu Lahab, who was among the crowd, stood up and shouted: "Tabban lak! Ali-hādhā jamaʿtanā?" — "Perish you! Is this why you gathered us?" And he walked away in contempt.
Shortly after, Sūrah Al-Masad was revealed — turning Abu Lahab's own curse (tabb) back upon himself: Tabbat yadā abī lahab. The very word he used against the Prophet ﷺ became the opening word of his own eternal condemnation.
Scholars consider this sūrah one of the clearest proofs of the Qur'an's divine origin — because it contains a precise, unfalsifiable prophecy.
When this sūrah was revealed, Abu Lahab was still alive. The surah declared with absolute certainty that he would die as a disbeliever and burn in the Fire. This means that for Abu Lahab to disprove the Qur'an — to make it wrong — all he needed to do was say the Shahada. Just once. Even if he didn't mean it. Even out of spite or mockery. Declaring faith would have made the surah's prophecy false.
But he never did. He lived for years after this revelation — years during which he could have spoken those two sentences and toppled the argument. He never did. He died exactly as the Qur'an said he would: a disbeliever, in disgrace, having perished in his enmity toward the very message that might have saved him.
This is not a coincidence that can be explained by human intelligence or foresight. The only explanation that holds is the one the Qur'an gives for itself: it is the speech of Allah, who knows what no human can know — including what a free human being will choose to do until the last moment of his life.
What makes Sūrah Al-Masad uniquely significant in the Qur'an.
Sūrah Al-Masad is short enough to memorise in minutes, but its depths take a lifetime to fully absorb. At its surface it is a condemnation. But beneath that, it is a meditation on several profound truths that are as urgent today as they were in Makkah fourteen centuries ago.
The first is the futility of wealth when it is not accompanied by taqwā. Abu Lahab was rich. He was powerful. He had children, allies, social standing. The verse does not say his wealth was worthless — it says his wealth was worthless to him when it mattered most. Wealth can buy almost everything in this world. But it cannot buy a single moment beyond the grave.
"His wealth will not avail him or that which he gained."
Qur'an — Sūrah Al-Masad 111:2The second is the danger of proximity without openness. Abu Lahab was closer to the Prophet ﷺ than almost anyone alive — by blood, by household, by community. He heard the message first-hand. He saw the character of the man delivering it. He had every advantage a seeker could ask for. And yet closeness without an open heart is meaningless. The Qur'an reminds us elsewhere: Indeed, you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills. (Al-Qasas, 28:56)
The third is the quiet lesson of Umm Jamil — that hatred is blinding. She stood in the presence of the man she hated, looking directly at him, and could not see him. The one whose heart is consumed by hatred and spite often cannot perceive the truth even when it is standing right before them.
And perhaps the deepest reflection of all: the word he used as a weapon — tabb, perish — became the first word of his own condemnation in the eternal Book of Allah. Our words, our actions, our cruelties — nothing is lost. Everything is recorded. Everything returns.
May Allah protect us from the arrogance of Abu Lahab and the malice of Umm Jamil. May He make us of those who hear the truth and open their hearts to it. And may He make the Qur'an a light for us in this world and a companion in the next.
Allahumma ijʿalil Qur'āna rabīʿa qalbī, wa nūra baṣarī, wa jalā'a ḥuznī, wa dhahāba hammī.
O Allah, make the Qur'an the spring of my heart, the light of my eyes, the removal of my sadness, and the departure of my anxieties.
Al-Qur'ān al-Karīm — Sūrah Al-Masad (111). Translation: Sahih International.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī — Book of Tafsīr; Book of Prophetic Commentary. Narrations on the revelation of Sūrah Al-Masad and the event on Mount Ṣafā.
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim — Book of Faith (Kitāb al-Īmān). The narration of the Ṣafā event and the Prophet's ﷺ public call.
Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr (Ibn Kathīr, d. 774H) — The most widely referenced classical commentary on the Qur'an. Primary source for the stories of Abu Lahab, Umm Jamil, and the occasion of revelation.
Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī (Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, d. 310H) — The earliest comprehensive Qur'anic commentary, covering all linguistic and historical aspects of the sūrah.
Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah — Ibn Hishām (d. 218H) — For historical details on Abu Lahab's conduct, the boycott, and his death after Badr.
Fī Ẓilāl al-Qur'ān (In the Shade of the Qur'an) — Sayyid Quṭb (d. 1966) — For the thematic and reflective analysis of the sūrah's message.
Al-Tafsīr al-Muyassar — King Fahd Qur'an Printing Complex. Used for simplified Arabic tafsīr and word definitions.