111 - Sūrat al-Masad

In the name of Allah (who is) Rahmān (and) Rahīm.

[For explanation, see Sūrat al-Fātiha: 1]

1

Perish, ruined be, the hands of Abū Lahab, in other words, all of him - the use of 'hands' here to denote [all of] him is figurative, and is because most actions are performed by them; the statement is an invocation - and perish he!, may he be ruined! (this [tabba] is a predicate, as where one says, ahlakahu'llāhu wa-qad halak, 'Allahu ta’ālā destroyed him and he indeed is destroyed'. When the Prophet threatened him with the chastisement, he said, 'If what my brother's son says is true, then I shall ransom [myself] from it with my wealth and sons!'; so the following was revealed:

2

His wealth will not avail him, nor what he has earned (wa-kasab means wa-kasbihi, that is to say, his sons; mā aghnā means [mā] yughnī).

3

He will [soon] enter a Fire of flames, that is to say, [a fire that is] flaming and ignited (this [statement] is the source of his nickname, [which was given to him] on account of his flaming reddish fair face),

4

and his wife (wa'mra'atuhu is a supplement to the person [of the verb] yaslā, 'he will enter', separated by the clause of the direct object and its qualification) - and this was Umm Jamīl - the carrier (read hammālatu or hammālata) of firewood, cactus and thorns which she used to fling into the path of the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam".

5

with a rope of palm-fibre around her neck (fī jīdihā hablun min masadin is a circumstantial qualifier referring to hammālata'l-hatab, which in turn is [either] a description of imra'atahu, 'his wife', or the predicate of an implied subject).