Abū Lahab

He was born in Mecca c. 549, the son of Abdul Muttalib, chief of the Hashim clan, and the paternal grandfather of Muhammad. He was thus a paternal half-brother of Abdullah, father of Muhammad. His mother, Lubna bint Hajar,[1] was from the Khuza'a tribe.[2] People from the Khuza'a tribe were the caretakers of the Ka'bah for several centuries, before the Quraysh took over the responsibility through their ancestor Qusai ibn Kilab. Abu Lahab was also related to Muhammad as half-uncle in another way, since Muḥammad's grandmother was Fāṭimah bint ‘Amr of Banu Makhzūm clan.

His original name was 'Abd al-'Uzzā, 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 Umayya clan. Their children included Utbah,[2][4] Utaybah,[5] Muattab,[5] Durrah (Fakhita), 'Uzzā and Khālida.[6] Abu Lahab had another son, also named Durrah, who may have been born by another woman. He may also have been the father of Masruh, a son born to his slave Thuwayba.[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.”

‘Utbah also embraced Islam after the conquest of Mecca and pledged allegiance to Muḥammad.

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,[22] 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.”[23]

Someone reported: “Before my own Islam I used to see the Prophet in markets outside Makkah calling out: ‘People, say there is no deity save 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.’”

Once Abu Lahab chased and hit Muḥammad with stones in one of those markets. He hit so hard that his feet began to bleed profusely and his slippers were filled with his own blood causing great pain and difficulty in walking.

Muhammad and most of the Muslims left Mecca in 622, and Abu Lahab had no further direct interaction with his nephew.

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 Abu Jahl'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.[24]

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 Abbas's wife Lubaba sat sharpening arrows. When they heard the news of the men in white riding between heaven and earth, they could no longer contain their happiness, and Abu Rafi exclaimed: "They were angels!" Abu Lahab was so furious that he forced the frail Abu Rafi' to the ground and beat him up. Lubaba grabbed a nearby tent pole and hit her brother-in-law over the head, crying: "Do you think that you can abuse him just because Abbas is away?"

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.[25]

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 suckled Muhammad.[26]

• * indicates that the marriage order is disputed
• Note that direct lineage is marked in bold.