Abu Lahab

"Perish you, Mohammad! Did you invite us here for this?"

"Ali Dashti also considers sura 111 as the words of Muhammad on the grounds that these words are unworthy of God: "It ill becomes the Sustainer of the Universe to curse an ignorant Arab and call his wife a firewood carrier." The short sura refers to Abu Lahab, the Prophets uncle, who was one of Muhammads bitterest opponents: "The hands of Abu Lahab shall perish, and he shall perish. His riches shall not profit him, neither that which he has gained. He shall go down to be burned into flaming fire, and his wife also, bearing wood having on her neck a cord of twisted fibres of a palm tree." Either these are Muhammads words or God is fond of rather feeble puns, since "Abu Lahab" means "father of flames."

"After preaching Islam in secret and among a small circle for some time, Mohammad ... summoned the Qoraysh chiefs to a meeting on the hill of Safa, and when all were assembled, besought them to embrace Islam. From their midst Abu Lahab stood up and shouted angrily, "Perish you, Mohammad! Did you invite us here for this?" The answer to Abu Lahabs challenge came in verse 1 of sura 111 (ol-Masad), in which the same Arabic word meaning "perish" appears: "Perish Abu Lahabs hands, and may he (himself) perish!" Abu Lahab was proud of his wealth and children. God said, "His wealth will not give him security, nor will the gains that he has made. He will roast in a flaming fire" (verses 2 and 3). Nor would his wife, Omm Jomayyel, who had strewn thorns in the Prophets path, be left unpunished: "And his wife, the carrier of the firewood sticks, will have a rope of palm fiber on her neck."