Explanation of Al Masad

English

In the Name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful 1. Perish the hands
of Abu Lahab, and he will perish!

2. His wealth and all that he has earned will not
benefit him.

3. He will soon burn in a flaming fire

4. As will his wife, the wood-carrier,

5. a rope of palm-fiber round her neck.

Explanation

Abu Lahab was the uncle of the Prophet ,صلى الله عليه وسلمone of his worst enemies, and one of the people
who harmed him the most. He was not religious, and neither did he feel any sense of family
obligation towards the Prophet ,صلى الله عليه وسلمMay Allah disgrace him! Allah censured him with this
severe rebuke that would be disgrace for him until the Day of Rising.

(1) “Perish the hands of Abu Lahab”, i.e. may his hands waste away and may he be
wretched, and he will perish, indeed he did not gain any profit.
(2) “His wealth and all that he has earned will not benefit him”, his money and earnings
made him tyrannical and “will not aid him at all”; they will not avert Allah’s punishment
when it is applied to him.

(3-5) “He will soon roast in a flaming fire”, enveloping him from all directions, “also his
wife, the wood-carrier”, she was also someone who harmed the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم
greatly. She and her husband aided each other in sin and transgression, and they did all they
could to harm him .صلى الله عليه وسلمHer sins have collected on her back, weighing her down, in the same
way as a wood-carrier piles wood on his back, binding them with a rope “of palm-fibre”
around the neck. The meaning could also be that she will actually carry wood to fuel the fire
burning her husband with a rope of palm-fibre round her neck.

Whatever the case, this Surah contains a clear miracle from Allah. Allah revealed this Surah
before Abu Lahab’s death and his wife’s death. He informed them that they would roast in the
Fire, which necessarily means that they would never accept Islam. This is what happened,
exactly as the Knower of the unseen and seen informed us!