‘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’.
According to the
promised Massih Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), “[t]he term Abu Lahab in the Holy
Quran implies a general connotation and does not refer to a specific
individual. This term refers to any such person who possesses a flaming or
fiery disposition. In the same manner, ‘the woman carrying firewood’ (hammala-tal-hatab)
refers to any
backbiting woman who engages in slandering and lighting the fire of mischief
among men. Sa’di says: ‘The wretched
backbiter only adds firewood to the flame.’”
According
to Hazrat Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, “just as the Prophet had to face this
character, similarly others of his followers (Ummah) may have to face just such a character. However, if the dayee has become active for the sake of
God in the real sense, then God’s help will be given to him. The inimical
efforts of people like Abu Lahab
will, by God’s grace, become ineffective and, in spite of all their means and
resources, the antagonists will perish. They will themselves burn in the fire
of their own jealousy and enmity. Their aim may have been to ensure that the
call of God came to a miserable end, but the opponents themselves will be the
ones to suffer that everlasting fate.”
Though
revealed over millennia and more, the Holy Qur’an speaks to our present, for
those who reflect on God’s words and think over contemporary events in
international relations, there are many lessons to learn and profit by. Through descriptions of characters and
situations, the Book of God illustrates both the good and the bad in the human
condition, while strongly urging us to choose wisely, to be just and fair in our
dealings with one another; to resist the temptations of evil and unjust ways,
embracing only the righteous path.
Through
its enduring verses, God’s timeless message for humanity is self-evident: wealth
and power should not be abused; for true authority and dominance over affairs
rests with God alone. As God’s creation, people should respect the bounds of
equity and treat other nations with fairness and justice. Leaders who exceed
the bounds of propriety and conspire to weaken the cause of fair dealings and wage
war against fellow peoples in other lands shall cause their own decline and
eventual downfall, indeed their riches and legacy will perish, and they will be
reduced to cautionary tales in the ‘cauldron’ of history.
In this
context, it is instructive to remember that in his Friday Sermon of 17 January
2014, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir
Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius invoked the following Duah in the wake of polytheists and war criminals seeking to
destroy the Muslim world:
‘Oh Allah, help us Muslims around the world and destroy our enemies in
this constant war so that the truth prevails and that the enemies of Islam
perish, and also those among the Israelis who are the real enemies of Muslims
and want our loss. Oh Allah, do not let them torture our Muslim brothers,
sisters and children. Ameen,
Summa Ameen, Ya Rabbul Aalameen.’
*************
.JPG)