Abu Lahab
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Abū Lahab أبُو لَهَب | |
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Born | c. 549 CE Lubnā bint Hājar (mother) |
Relatives | |
Family | Banu Hashim (Quraysh) |
ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (
Early life and family
Abu Lahab was born in
Abu Lahab was also related to Muhammad as half-uncle in another way, since Muḥammad's grandmother was Fāṭimah bint ‘Amr of the Banu Makhzūm. They lived next door to Muhammad and shared walls with his house.
His original name was 'Abd al-'Uzzā, meaning slave/devotee of the goddess al-ʿUzzā. But his father called him Abū Lahab "Father of Flame" "because of his beauty and charm"[2] due to his red (inflamed) cheeks. He is described as "an artful spruce fellow with two locks of hair, wearing an Aden cloak"[3] and as "very generous".[2]
He married Arwā Umm Jamīl bint Harb, sister of Abu Sufyān (Sakhr), whose father Ḥarb was chief of the Banu Umayyah. Their children included Utbah,[2][4] Utaybah,[5] Muattab,[5] Durrah (Fakhita), ʿUzzā and Khālida.[6] Abu Lahab had another son, also named Durrah, who may have been born by another woman.[citation needed] He may also have been the father of Masruh, a son born to his slave Thuwaybah.[7]
His daughter Durrah embraced Islam and became a narrator of Hadīth. One is in Ahmad’s Musnad, where she reports that a man got up and asked the Islamic prophet Muhammad, "Who is the best of the people?" He answered, "The best of the people is the most learned, the most godfearing, the most to be enjoining virtue, the most to be prohibiting vice and the most to be joining the kin."[citation needed]
‘Utbah also embraced Islam after the conquest of Mecca and pledged allegiance to Muḥammad.[citation needed]
The Wa Ṣabāḥah (c. 613)
When Muhammad announced that he had been instructed by
On hearing this, the inhabitants of Mecca assembled at the mountain. Muhammad then addressed the clans by name. "O Banū Hāshim, O Banū 'Abd al-Muṭallib ... [and so on], if I were to tell you that behind this hill there is an enemy about to attack you, would you believe me?" The people responded that they would, since Muhammad was known to be very honest and was also given the title of Al Amin. He continued saying: "Then I warn you that you are heading for a torment."
At this point, Abu Lahab interrupted: "Woe be on you the rest of the day! Is that what you summoned us for?"[8] Another tradition recalls Abū Lahab picking up a stone to throw at his nephew.[citation needed].
Abu Lahab rejected the claims of Muhammad and said: "Muhammad promises me things which I do not see. He alleges that they will happen after my death; what has he put in my hands after that?" Then he blew on his hands and said, "May you perish. I can see nothing in you of the things that Muhammad says."[9]
The Sura of Abu Lahab
As a direct result of this incident, a chapter of the Quran, Al-Masad ("The Palm Fibre", surah 111), was revealed about him.[8] Its English translation by Sahih International reads:[10][11][12]
- Perish the two hands of Abu Lahab, and perish he,
- His wealth will not avail him or that which he gained,
- He will [enter to] burn in a Fire of [blazing] flame,
- His wife [as well] – the carrier of firewood (thorns of Satan which she used to put on the way of the Prophet).
- Around her neck is a rope of twisted fiber (masadd).[13]
Umm Jamil is called "the bearer of the wood" because she is said to have carried thorns and cast them in Muhammad's pathway.[14][15]
Abu Lahab had married two of his sons to the daughters of Muḥammad, 'Utbah to
Other acts of opposition (613–619)
When the
While Muhammad was praying near the Kaaba,
On the 7th year of preaching Islam, the Quraysh imposed boycott on Banu Hāshim & Banu Muṭṭalib and forced them to live in a mountain gorge outside the city. Most of the members of Banu Hāshim had not accepted Islam at that time. Yet they stood by Muḥammad and suffered as much as he did. Abu Lahab was the only member of Banu Hāshim who supported the boycott and did not join his clan. Through a deep sense of animosity, Abu Lahab violated this ‘Arab tradition and took the side of non-Muslim Quraysh clans. Abu Lahab renounced his affiliation with the Hashim clan and remained in Mecca. Soon afterwards, he met his sister-in-law,
Between the Boycott and Badr (619–624)
After the boycott was lifted, another nephew, Abu Salama, came to Abu Talib asking for protection. When the Makhzum clan protested about this, Abu Lahab supported his brother. He told the Makhzumites: "O Quraysh, you have continually attacked this shaykh for giving his protection among his own people. By God, you must either stop this or we will stand in with him until he gains his object." The Makhzumites wanted to keep Abu Lahab's support, and therefore they agreed not to annoy Abu Salama.[5]
Abu Talib died in 620,[24] From this time, Muhammad went around the trade fairs and markets to tell the Arab tribes that he was a prophet and call them to worship Allah. Abu Lahab used to follow him around the fairs, saying, "This fellow wishes only to get you to strip off Al-Lat and Al-Uzza from your necks and your allies of the Malik ibn Uqaysh tribe for the misleading innovation he has brought. Don’t obey him and take no notice of him."[25]
Someone reported: "Before my own Islam I used to see the Prophet in markets outside Makkah calling out: ‘People, say there is no deity but Allah and you will prosper.’ People would gather around him but a man, bright faced, intelligent looking, with two locks of hair (hanging down), would appear from the rear and say: ‘This man has renounced the religion (of his forefathers). He is a liar.’ He followed the Prophet wherever he went. The people would enquire who he was to learn that it was his (the Prophet's) uncle."[26]
Muhammad and most of the Muslims left Mecca in 622, and Abu Lahab had no further direct interaction with his nephew.
Death
As per Islamic sources, when the rest of the Quraysh went to Badr to protect the merchant-caravan carrying their property from an expected attack, Abu Lahab remained in Mecca, sending in his place Amr Bin Hisham's brother al-‘Āṣ ibn Hishām who owed him four thousand dirhams that he could not pay. So he hired him with them on the condition that he should be cleared off his debt.[27]
The first people to reach Mecca with the news of the Quraysh defeat in the Battle of Badr were al-Haysuman and 'Abdullāh ibn al-Khuzā'ī, who bewailed the fact that so many of their chieftains had fallen on the battlefield. Abu Lahab went to the large tent of Zamzam, "his face as black as thunder". Before long, his nephew Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith arrived, so he called him over for news. A small crowd gathered around the two as Abū Sufyān told his uncle, "The facts are the Quraysh met our enemy and turned their backs. They [the Muslims] put us to flight, taking prisoners as they pleased. I cannot blame our tribesmen because they faced not only them but men wearing white robes riding piebald horses, who were between heaven and earth. They spared nothing, and no one had a chance." (A.Guillaume, Life of Muhammad, 2007, p 310)
At the other end of the tent, a Muslim freedman named Abu Rafi' and
According to Islamic sources, Lubaba wounded Abu Lahab so severely that his head was split open, laying bare part of his skull. The wound turned septic, and his entire body erupted into open pustules. He died a week later. This would have been in late March 624. The smell from Abu Lahab's wound was so repulsive that nobody could come near him. His family left his decaying body decomposing in his home for two or three nights until a neighbour rebuked them. "It is disgraceful. You should be ashamed of leaving your father to rot in his house and not bury him from the sight of men!" They then sent in slaves to remove his body. It was watered from a distance, then pushed with poles into a grave outside Mecca, and stones were thrown over it.[28]
A Muslim narration says that after Abu Lahab's death, some of his relatives had a dream in which they saw him suffering in Hell. He told them that he had experienced no comfort in the Afterlife, but that his sufferings had been remitted "this much" (indicating the space between his thumb and index finger) because of his one virtuous deed of manumitting his slave Thuwayba, who had briefly nursed Muhammad as foster-mother.[29]
Family tree
Kilab ibn Murrah | Fatimah bint Sa'd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Qusai ibn Kilab paternal great-great-great-grandfather | Hubba bint Hulail paternal great-great-great-grandmother | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
` Abd Manaf ibn Zuhrah maternal great-grandfather | `Abd Manaf ibn Qusai paternal great-great-grandfather | Atikah bint Murrah paternal great-great-grandmother | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wahb ibn `Abd Manaf maternal grandfather | Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf (progenitor of Banu Hashim) paternal great-grandfather | Salma bint `Amr paternal great-grandmother | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Abdul-Muttalib paternal grandfather | Halah bint Wuhayb paternal step-grandmother | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hamza paternal half-uncle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
`Abbas paternal half-uncle | Abu Lahab paternal half-uncle | 6 other sons and 6 daughters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Muhammad | `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas paternal cousin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
`Abd-Allah son | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Zayd adopted son | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Abd-Allah ibn Uthman grandson | Rayhana bint Zayd wife | Usama ibn Zayd adoptive grandson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
family tree | Umm Kulthum bint Ali granddaughter | Zaynab bint Ali granddaughter | Safiyya tenth wife | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Maymuna eleventh wife | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Umm Habiba ninth wife | Maria al-Qibtiyya twelfth wife | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ibrahim son | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- * indicates that the marriage order is disputed
- Note that direct lineage is marked in bold.
References
- ^ Ibn Hisham note 97. Translated by Guillaume, A. (1955). The Life of Muhammad p. 707. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b c d "19.6/ Muhammad ibn Saad, Tabaqat vol. 1 part 1:19:6". Soebratie.nl. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- ^ Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah. Translated by Guillaume, A. (1955). The Life of Muhammad, p. 195. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Muhammad ibn Saad, Tabaqat vol. 8. Translated by Bewley, A. (1995). The Women of Madina p. 24. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.
- ^ a b c Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 170.
- ^ Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 37 (all three daughters are listed here, with Umm Jamil named as their mother).
- ^ "27.4/Ibn Saad, Tabaqat vol. 1 part 1:27:4". Soebratie.nl. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- ^ a b "Ibn Kathir, Tafsir on Q111:1". Qtafsir.com. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume pp. 159-160.
- ^ "Quran > Ibn-Kathir Al-Qur'an Tafsir > Surah 111. Al-Lahab . Ayah 1". Alim. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
- ^ "Abu Lahab - Ontology of Quranic Concepts from the Quranic Arabic Corpus". corpus.quran.com.
- ^ ibn Nasir as-Sadi, Abdur-Rahman (7 Dec 2009). "Tafsir of Surah al Masad – Palm Fibre (Surah 111)". Islaam.net. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
- ^ "Al-Masad, The Palm Fibre". quran.com. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 161.
- ^ "Umm Jamil - Ontology of Quranic Concepts from the Quranic Arabic Corpus". corpus.quran.com.
- ^ a b Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 25.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 314.
- ^ Muhammad ibn Saad, Tabaqat vol. 3. Translated by Bewley, A. (2013). The Companions of Badr p. 32. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.
- ^ Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 37.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq p. 120.
- ISBN 9781518937705
- ^ "48.6/ Muhammad ibn Saad, Tabaqat vol. 1 part 1:48:6". Soebratie.nl. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 159.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 191.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume pp. 194-195.
- ^ "Abū Lahab - w3we".
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 291.
- ^ Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 310.
- ^ "27.3/ Muhammad ibn Saad, Tabaqat vol. 1 part 1:27:3". Soebratie.nl. Retrieved 2019-01-29.