‘May the hands of Abu
Lahab be ruined!
May he be ruined too!
Neither his wealth nor
his gains will help him:
he will burn in the Flaming
Fire–– and so will his wife,
the firewood-carrier, with a palm-fibre rope
around her neck.’
--- ( Holy Qur'an, Surah Al Masad, 111:
2-6 )
In the times of Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa), his uncle Abu Lahab was one of the wealthiest and influential Qurayshi leaders who most opposed the Prophet and persecuted the early Muslims. Material wealth and worldly rule intoxicated him with a fiery temperament. Raging impatience characterized this ‘Flame Man’. Abu Lahab’s wife Umm Jamil bint Harb was a scheming woman, known to support her husband in his excesses- even indulged in mocking the Prophet when he was ill. The Holy Qur’an makes an illustration out of the mindset of ‘Abu Lahabs’; the Book of God roundly condemns such arrogance and hubris: ‘may his (hands) power perish and all that he possesses’.
