Page:The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930).pdf/690



Al-Masad takes its name from a word (to the Arabs a very homely word) in the last verse. It is the only passage in the whole Koran where an opponent of the Prophet is denounced by name. Abû Lahab (The Father of Flame), whose real name was Abdul 'Uzzâ, was a first cousin of the Prophet's grandfather and was the only member of his own clan who bitterly opposed the Prophet. He made it his business to torment the Prophet, and his wife took a pleasure in carrying thorn bushes and strewing them in the sand where she knew that the Prophet was sure to walk barefooted.

An early Meccan revelation.

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. The power of Abû Lahab will perish, and he will perish. His wealth and gains will not exempt him. He will be plunged in flaming fire, And his wife, the wood-carrier, Will have upon her neck a halter of palm-fibre.