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Abū Lahab and Sūra cxi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Uri Kubin
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Extract

The studies of Sūra CXI 1 have not yet arrived at satisfactory results, hence the meaning of this sūra is still obscure. The present study tries to present a better basis for its understanding.

1. The date and background of the sῡra

Sūra CXI deals with Abū Lahab, whom all the Muslim sources identify as Muḥammad's paternal uncle, 'Abd al-'Uzzā b. 'Abd al-Muṭṭalib of the clan of Hāshim.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 1979 , pp. 13 - 28
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1979

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References

1 J. Barth, ‘Abū Lahab’, EI, first ed.; Fischer, A., Der Wert der vorhandenen Koranübersetzungen und Sura CXI, Leipzig, 1937Google Scholar; Künstlinger, D., ‘Eschatologisohes in Sura III’, OLZ, XLI, 7, 1938, 407–10Google Scholar; Lohmann, T., ‘Abū Lahab (Sura CXI)’, Zeitschrift für Religions und Geistwelt Geschichte, XVIII, 1966, 326–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paret, R., Der Koran, Kommentar und Konkordanz, Stuttgart, 1971, 529Google Scholar. Wansbrough, J. in his Quranic studies (Oxford, 1977)Google Scholar does not refer to our sūra. This is quite disappointing, because a scholar who denies any historical connexion between the Qur'ān and the ‘Arabian prophet’ ought to say something about the identity of Abū Lahab and his wife.

2 References to the commentaries quoted in the following pages: al-Ṭabarī, , Jāmi' al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, Būlāq, 1323/1905, XXX, 217–21Google Scholar; al-Ṭabarsī, , Majma' al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, Beirut, n.d., XXX, 266–71Google Scholar; al-Zamakhsharī, , al-Kashshāf 'an ḥaqā'iq al-tanzīl, Cairo, 1968, IV, 295–7Google Scholar; al-Bayḍāwī, , Anwār al-tanzīl wa-asrār al-ta'wīl, Cairo, 1955, 317Google Scholar; al-Rāzi, al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, repr., Tehran, n.d., XXXII, 166–73; Hayyān, Abū, al-BaḤr al-muḤīṭ, Cairo, 1328/1910, VIII, 524–7Google Scholar; Kathīr, Ibn, Tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-'aẓīm, Beirut, 1966, VII, 399–402Google Scholar; al-Āhūsī, Rūḥ al-ma'ānī, repr., Beirut, n.d., XXX, 259–65.

3 See al-Wāqidī, , Kitāb al-maghāzī, ed. Jones, J. M. B., London, 1966, III, 874Google Scholar. See also al-Azraqī, , Akhbār Makka, ed. Wüstenfeld, , I, 81–2Google Scholar.

4 Details about those deities are to be found in J. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums, Berlin, repr. 1961, 24 ff.

5 The Banū Shaybān of Sulaym were the confederates of the clan of Hāshim. See Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqā, al-Abyārī, Shalabī, four vols., repr., Beirut, 1971, I, 86.

6 The meaning of ‘hand’ will be explained below.

7 in tazhar al-'uzzā, kuntu qad ittakhadhtu yadan 'indahā bi-qiyāmī 'alayhā.

8 Barth, loc. cit. Fischer did not refer to it at all.

9 See also Lohmann, , art. oit., 330Google Scholar.

10 That Aflaḥ b. al-Naḍr was Abū Lahab's contemporary, and not the last sādin of al-'Uzzā who was killed by Khālid after the conquest of Mecca, was already pointed out by Wellhausen, , op. cit., 38Google Scholar. The last sādin was named Dubayya b. Ḥaramī, see al-Kalbī, Ibn, Kitāb al-aṣnām, ed. Bāshā, Aḥmad Zakī, Cairo, 1914, 25 ffGoogle Scholar.

11 Aṣnām, 23; cf. also Wellhausen, , op. cit., 36Google Scholar.

12 On the ‘Satanic verses’, see al-Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, XVII, 131 ffGoogle Scholar. (on Qur'ān XXII, 52); idem, Tārīkh, Cairo, 1939, II, 75–7 (from Ibn Isḥāq and other sources); Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa 'l-nihāya, repr., Beirut, 1974, III, 90–1; al-Zurqānī, Sharḥ al-mawāhib al-laduniyya, repr., Beirut, 1973, I, 279 ff.; Shahrāshūb, Ibn, Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib, Najaf, 1375/1956, I, 46Google Scholar; al-'Asqalānī, , Fatḥ al-bārī bi-sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Būlāq, 1300/1883, VIII, 332–4Google Scholar; al-Qādī'Iyad, , al-Shifā' bi-ta'rif ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā, Cairo, 1950, II, 106 ff.Google Scholar; Sa'd, Ibn, al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, Beirut, 1960, I, 205–6Google Scholar; Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, 'Uyūn al-athar, repr., Beirut, n.d., I, 120–1; Watt, W. M., Muḥammad at Mecca, Oxford, 1953, 102 ff.Google Scholar; Paret, , op. cit., 461Google Scholar.

13 See Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 205Google Scholar. On his last illness see ibid., IV, 95–6.

14 Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 376Google Scholar.

15 According to al-Wāqidī, the proclamation of these verses occurred in the fifth year, i.e. two years before the boycott of Hāshim (Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 206, 209Google Scholar). Therefore the abrogation must have happened shortly before the boycott. Al-Ṭabarī, on his part, mentions the affair of the ‘Satanic verses’ only after the beginning of the boycott. See Tārīkh, n, 74, 75 if. See also al-Zurqānī, , op. cit., I, 278 ffGoogle Scholar.

16 Jeffery, A., Materials for the history of the text of the Qur'ān, Leiden, 1937, 180Google Scholar. Quoted from Jeffery by Fischer, p. 10, without any comment.

17 See Thābit, Ḥassān b., Dīwān, ed. 'Arafāt, W., London, 1971, I, p. 390, no. 214Google Scholar.

18 wa-lākinna Liḥyānan abūka warithtahū/ wa-ma'wā 'l-khanā minhum fa-da' 'anka hāshimā/ samat hāshimun lil-makrumāti wa-lil'ulā/ wa-ghūdirta fī ka'bin mina 'l-lu'mi jāthimā.

19 That Abū Lahab's conduct during the period of the boycott of Hāshim had a serious effect on Muḥammad is indicated also in some early verses ascribed to Abū Ṭālib (Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., II, 11Google Scholar). In these verses Abū Ṭālib urges Abū Lahab not to abandon his nephew, stressing the importance of his protection. Abū Ṭālib swears by the ‘house of Allāh’ (the Ka'ba) that the Hāshimites will protect the prophet till the end. The background of these verses can easily be established, as the shi'b is mentioned in the last verse.

20 An Arabic-English lexicon, s.v. a.kh.dh.

21 Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 211Google Scholar. It is related that Abū Lahab protected Muḥammad only after Abū Ṭālib had died, i.e. much later than the revelation of Sūra CXI. It is more likely, however, that Muḥammad had enjoyed the protection of Abū Lahab before the revelation of this sūra which marked the end of the friendly relations with his uncle. The present form of the account apparently reflects a Shī'ī tendency to promote the impression that as long as Abū Ṭālib ('Alī's father) was alive, he was Muḥammad's only protector. At any rate, both Abū Ṭālib and Abū Lahab are said to have earned something in return for their kind attitude towards Muḥammad. Abū Ṭālib, who died as an unbeliever, was said to be only in the shallow fire of hell (ḍaḥḍāḥ). Abū Lahab was said to have water to ease his torture in hell as a reward for setting free his slave Thuwayba, who was Muḥammad's wet-nurse. See al-Suhaylī, , al-Bawḍ al-unuf, ed. Sa'd, 'Abd al-Ra'ūf, Cairo, 1971, III, 67Google Scholar; al-'Asqalānī, , Fatḥ al-bārī, IX, 124–5Google Scholar. On Abū Lahab and Thuwayba see also al-Bukhārī, , Ṣaḥīḥ, Cairo, 1958, VII, 12Google Scholar; Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 108Google Scholar; al-Bayhaqī, , Dalā'il al-nubuwwa, ed. 'Uthmān, Muḥammad, Cairo, 1969, I, 120Google Scholar; al-Jawzī, Ibn, al- Wafā bi-aḥwāl al-Muṣṱafā, ed. al-Wāḥid, 'Abd, Cairo, 1966, I, 107Google Scholar; al-'Asqalānī, , al-Iṣāba fī ma'rifat al-ṣaḥāba, ed. al-Bijāwī, , Cairo, 1970, VII, 549Google Scholar; al-Zurqānī, , op. cit., I, 138Google Scholar.

22 See e.g. Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 93Google Scholar: wa-kāna jawādan.

23 Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 184 ffGoogle Scholar.

24 ibid., 187.

25 ibid., 115; Ibn Sa'd, loc. cit.

26 For: qad asdā.

27 Abū Muslim (probably al-Kashshī, d. 292/904, see Sezgin, , GAS, I, 162Google Scholar), as quoted by al-Rāzī, says that yadā abī lahabin means his fortune (ya'nī mālahu) which is also denoted by the expression dhāt al-yad. This interpretation is close to the interpretation of yad as ni'ma, in the sense of material support.

28 See Bravmann, M. M., The spiritual background of early Islam, Leiden, 1972, 199 ffGoogle Scholar.

29 See Kister, M. J., ‘“'An yadin” (Qur'ān, IX, 29)’, Arabica, XI, 3, 1964, 272–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Sezgin, , GAS, I, 31 ffGoogle Scholar.

31 On whom see al-Dhahabī, , Mīzān al-i'tidāl, Cairo, n.d., IV, 460Google Scholar.

32 See al-Ṭabarsī, al-Rāzī, and Abū Ḥayyān.

33 Lohmann, , art. oit., 334Google Scholar.

34 Goldhizer, , Muhammedanische Studien, Halle a.S., I, 1889, 267Google Scholar (English tr., Muslim studies, I, London, 1967, 242)Google Scholar.

35 Fatḥ al-bārī, VIII, 387.

35 This verse seems to be the main reason for the Mu'tazila's rejection of our sūra, because it excludes from the outset any possibility of repentance on the part of Abū Lahab. See e.g. al-Rāzī on this verse. This point has not yet been explained by Western scholars who dealt with the Mu'tazilī attitude towards our sūra. See Goldziher, I., Vorlesungen über den Islam, 207Google Scholar; Fischer, op. cit., 15 ff.Google Scholar; Barth, , art. cit., 329Google Scholar.

37 See also al-Suhayī, , op. cit., II, 109Google Scholar.

38 Regarding tabbat as an invocation, Fischer considered this qirā'a to be the original one. Paret, (op. cit., 529)Google Scholar, however, has shown that the lectio difficilior is not wa-qad tabba (Ibn Mas'ūd) but rather wa-tabba, thus affirming that Ibn Mas'ūd's reading is secondary. The qirā'a of Ibn Mas'ūd was indeed known as an ‘easy’ one, containing many explanatory additions to the original text. See al-Suhaylī, loc. cit. See also Goldziher, I., Richtungen, 8 ffGoogle Scholar.

39 See references in Fischer, , op. cit., p. 20, n. 1Google Scholar.

40 Fischer, Ioc. cit., adduces this verse as an illustration that tabbat yadā abī lahabin is an invocation. This verse, however, seems to be a later reflection of a somewhat similar rajaz verse included in the original story about the person who bought fasw. This man, so the story goes, was named Baydara; he bought the fasw of the tribe of Iyād. The original rajaz verse referring to him does not yet have tabbat yadāhu but still: shallat yadāhu. See e.g. Durayd, Ibn, Jamharat al-lugha, Hyderabad, 1344/1925, I, 23Google Scholar.

41 Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 376Google Scholar.

42 Sezgin, , GAS, I, 38Google Scholar.

43 ibid., 9.

44 See al-Bukhārī, , op. cit., VI, 140, 221–2Google Scholar; al-Tirmidhī, , Ṥaḥīḥ (in 'Āriḍat al-aḥwadhī, by Ibn al-'Arabī), XII, 259Google Scholar. See also Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 74–5, 200Google Scholar.

45 e.g. al-Wāḥidī, , Asbāb al-nuzūl, Cairo, 1968, 261–2Google Scholar.

46 See al-Ṭabarī, , Tārīkh, II, 62–3Google Scholar (from Ibn Isḥāq). Cf. also Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 187Google Scholar.

47 A similar story is told about the wife of Abū Lahab who, after the revelation of the sūra, intended to throw a big stone at Muḥammad. Allāh, however, concealed the prophet from her. See Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 381–2Google Scholar. Cf. al-'Asqalānī, , Fatḥ al-bārī, VIII, 567Google Scholar; al-Naysābūrī, al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak 'alā 'lṣaḥīḥayn, Riyāḍ, 1388/1968, II, 361Google Scholar; al-Bayhaqī, , op. cit., I, 443–4Google Scholar; al-Jawzī, Ibn, op. cit., I, 325Google Scholar; al-Suyūṭī, , al-Khaṣā'iṣ al-kubrā, ed. Harās, , Cairo, 1967, I, 318–19Google Scholar; al-Nās, Ibn Sayyid, op. cit., I, 102–3Google Scholar; Shahrāshūb, Ibn, op. cit., I, 61Google Scholar; al-Khargūsnī, Sharaf al-Nabī, MS BM Or. 3014, fols. 40a, 127a.

48 On whom see Iṣāba, III, 511.

49 A Shi'ī tradition relates that al-'Abbās participated with Abū Lahab in these deeds. Abū Ṭālib defended the prophet against them both. See Shahrāshūb, Ibn, op. cit., I, 51Google Scholar.

50 Quoted from al-Tirmidhī in Iṣāba, loc. cit.

51 See Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., II, 64–5Google Scholar; al-Nās, Ibn Sayyid, op. cit., I, 101Google Scholar; Kathīr, Ibn, op. cit., III 41Google Scholar; Shahrāshūb, Ibn, op. cit., I, 51Google Scholar. Cf. also Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 216Google Scholar. In the course of time, Abū Lahab's name was included in the list of those Qurashīs who plotted to kill the prophet before the Hijra. See Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 228Google Scholar. In Ibn Hishām, II, 125, his name is still absent from that list. Similarly, later sources (Ibn Shahrāshūb, I, 66–7, cf. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, I, 113) include his name in the list of the mustahzi'ūn, from which his name is still absent in the earlier sources (e.g. Ibn Hishām, II, 50–1; al-Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, XIV, 48–9Google Scholar. See also al-Bayhaqī, , op. cit., II, 85–6Google Scholar; al-Suyūṭī, op. cit., I, 365Google Scholar; al-Jawzī, Ibn, op. cit., I, 329–30Google Scholar; al-Khargūshī, , op. cit., MS Tübingen M.a. VI, 12, folios 44b–45a)Google Scholar. It is also worthy of note that in later sources Abū Lahab is said to have performed deeds which were ascribed originally to Abū Jahl (of Makhzūm), probably due to the likeness of the names. In the earlier sources it is related that Abū Jahl plotted to kill Muḥammad with a stone, while the latter was absorbed in prayer (Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 319–20Google Scholar; see also al-Bayhaqī, , op. cit., I, 438–40Google Scholar; al-Suyūṭī, , op. cit., I, 315–16, 320–1Google Scholar; al-Jawzī, Ibn, op. cit., I, 327Google Scholar; al-Khargūshī, , op. cit. (BM), fol. 114bGoogle Scholar; Wensinck, , A handbook of early Muhammadan tradition, 7Google Scholar, and also the commentaries on Sūra CXVI). In later sources the same story is transferred from Abū Jahl to Abū Lahab. See Shahrāshūb, Ibn, op. cit., I, 68–9Google Scholar.

52 Finally Abū Lahab has become the archetype of Muḥammad's enemies, whom all the Muslims are urged to curse. Kathīr, Ibn (Bidāya, III 41)Google Scholar informs us that Sūra CXI was recited on the minbars being included in the exhortations and the Friday sermons. And see further Fischer, op. cit., passim, Lohmann, , art. cit., 339, 331–2Google Scholar. It is interesting to observe, however, that certain circles (probably of the Shi'a) produced several traditions to the effect that Muḥammad had forbidden the Muslims to curse the members of his own family. This had been done after Abū Lahab's daughter had complained to the prophet of being insulted by the Muslims for being the offspring of the ‘fire-wood of hell’ (ibnat ḥaṭab al-nār). According to some traditions the prophet announced on that occasion that his intercession (shafā'a) would save all his blood relations at the Last Judgement. See al-'Asqalānī, , Iṣāba, VII, 634 ff.Google Scholar; al-Khargūshī, , op. cit. (Tübingen), 18b, (BM) 50b–51aGoogle Scholar; al-Zurqānī, , op. cit., I, 185–6Google Scholar; al-Haytamī, Ibn Ḥajar, al-Ṣawā'iq al-muḥriqa, Cairo, 1965, 172Google Scholar.

53 Fischer also believes that yadā is a synecdoche, hence, yadā Abī Lahabin denotes: Abū Lahab. But this explanation is obviously wrong, as it does not explain why the Qur'ān speaks both of the hands of Abū Lahab (tabbat) and of Abū Lahab himself (wa-tabba). This repetition can be intelligible only if a clear distinction between the ‘hands’ of Abū Lahab and the person himself is assumed.

54 Paret, , op. cit., 22Google Scholar; Bravmann, , op. cit., 107 ffGoogle Scholar.

55 cf. al-Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, XIX, 3Google Scholar. Commenting on Qur'ān xxv, 23, al-Zamakhsharī says that the works of the unbelievers were such as doing good to the kindred, helping the suffering, entertaining guests, redeeming prisoners, and other such noble and good deeds (wa-a'māluhum 'llatī 'amilūhā fī kufrihim min ṣilati raḥimin wa-ighāthati malhūfin wa-qirā ḍayfin wa-mannin 'alā asīrin wa-ghayri dhālika min makārimihim wa-maḥāsinihim). And see further Qur'ān XIV, 18, where the 'amal of the unbelievers is mentioned in connexion with their kasb: mathalu 'lladhīna kafarū bi-rabbihim a'māluhum ka-ramādin ishtaddat bihi 'l-rīḥu fī yawmin 'āṣifin lā yaqdirūna mimmā kasabū 'alā shay'in.

56 Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 185, 1. 12Google Scholar. As an owner of a large number of camels, Abū Lahab was able to practise qimār; see Aghānī, Būlāq, repr. Beirut, 1970, III, 100, IV, 19.

57 I, 81.

58 Sezgin, , GAS, I, 29Google Scholar.

59 Bravmann, , op. cit., 110 ffGoogle Scholar.

70 Sezgin, , GAS, I, 290Google Scholar.

61 See also al-Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, XXV, 86Google Scholar, where mā kasabū is explained as māl wa-wuld. In other cases, however, al-Ṭabarī did not refrain from explaining kasaba in the sense of 'amila. See e.g. XIV, 34; XXIV, 9, 57.

62 See also al-Nabhānī, , al-Fatḥ, al-kabīr, Cairo, n.d., I, 292Google Scholar (from al-Bukhārī's Tārīkh, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasā'ī, and Ibn Māja). Cf. al-Sulamī, , 'Uyūb al-nafs, ed. Kohlberg, E., Jerusalem, 1976, 101Google Scholar.

63 Al-Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, VIII, 142Google Scholar (on Qur'ān VII, 48); XXIX, 40 (on LXIX, 28); XIV, 34 (on XV, 84); XXIV, 9 (on XXXIX, 50); XXVI, 18 (on XLVI, 26); XII, 68 (on XI, 101).

64 In two more cases al-Ṭabarī has interpreted mā kasaba as an interrogation and not as past tense, due to interrogative pronouns found in the Qur'ānic text. See ibid., XXIV, 57 (on Qur'ān XL, 82), XIX, 71 (on XXVI, 207).

65 Kitāb al-ma'ārif, ed. al-Ṣawī, , Beirut, 1970, 62Google Scholar.

66 Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., VIII, 36, 37Google Scholar. According to another source (Aghānī, XV, 2) it was the wife of Abū Lahab who ordered the breaking off of the marriage.

67 Al-Suhaylī, , op. cit., III, 68Google Scholar; al-Bayhaqī, , op. cit., II, 96–7Google Scholar. See also al-Khargūshī, , op. cit. (Tübingen), fol. 87b, (BM) fol. 124bGoogle Scholar. Another source says that Lahab's, Abū son was killed by the lion because of his being one of the mustahzi'ūn (p. 21, n. 51, above)Google Scholar; see al-Ṭabarī, , al-Dīn wa 'l-dawla fī ithbāt nubuwwat al-Nabī Muḥammad, ed. Nuwayhiḍ, 'Ādil, Beirut, 1973, 67Google Scholar. A distinction must be made between the son that was killed by a lion and the other two sons of Abū Lahab who survived their father and embraced Islam after the conquest of Mecca. The Muslim traditionists are a little puzzled as to what the exact name of each of the sons was, as their names were quite similar: 'Utba, 'Utayba, and Mu'attib. See al-Suhaylī, loc. cit. Sometimes the sources mention a son named Lahab, obviously a secondary derivation from the father's nickname. See al-Dīn wa 'l-dawla, loc. cit.; al-Naysābūrī, , Mustadrak, II, 539Google Scholar; al-Bayhaqī, , op. cit., II, 96Google Scholar.

68 Al-Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, XXVII, 24Google Scholar; see also al-Suyūṭī, , op. cit., I, 367–9Google Scholar; Shahrāshūb, Ibn, op. cit., I, 71Google Scholar. Cf. Aghānī, XIII, 153.

69 See e.g. al-Dīn wa 'l-dawla, 76 ff.; al-Suyūṭī, , op. cit., II, 372 ff., III, 3 ff.Google Scholar; al-Jawzī, Ibn, op. cit., 305 ff.Google Scholar; Kathīr, Ibn, Bidāya, VI, 182 ffGoogle Scholar.

70 Concerning his death, see al-Ṭabarī, , Tārīkh, II, 159–60Google Scholar (from Ibn Isḥāq); Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., IV, 73–4Google Scholar; al-Suhaylī, , op. cit., III, 66 ff.Google Scholar; al-Nās, Ibn Sayyid, op. cit., I, 267 ff.Google Scholar; Aghānī, IV, 32–3.

71 Mustadrak, n, 539.

72 See the same version also in al-Bayhaqī, , op. cit., II, 96Google Scholar; al-Jawzī, Ibn, op. cit., I, 348Google Scholar.

73 This translation is based on the reading ḥammalāta 'l-ḥaṭabi, which signifies dhamm, and not on ḥammālatu 'l-ḥaṭabi. For further details see the commentaries.

74 Fischer, , op. cit., 34Google Scholar, quoted Qatāda's interpretation from al-Rāzī, without noticing its complete version in al-Ṭabarī. Therefore he seems to have misunderstood its significance. See below, p. 27, n. 77.

75 Fischer, , op. cit., 35 ff.Google Scholar; Lohmann, , art. cit., 344Google Scholar.

76 See also Hishām, Ibn, op. cit., I, 380Google Scholar. A similar action, namely the throwing of offal in front of Muḥammad's door, is ascribed to Abū Lahab and 'Uqba b. Abī Mu'ayyit. See Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., I, 201Google Scholar. It may be further remarked that in some later traditions Abū Lahab's wife is even presented as taking an active part in the plots of Quraysh to kill the prophet. The person who allegedly defended the prophet against this woman was no other than Abū Lahab himself. See al-Katikānī, Tahsīr al-burhān, on our sūra (reference from M. J. Kister). This tradition seems to express the anti-Umayyad feelings of the Shī'a.

77 Fischer, , op. cit., 35Google Scholar, holds that ḥammālat 'l-ḥaṭab is a mere curse directed to that aristocratic woman in order to humiliate her by alleging her to be a wood-carrier. He (p. 34) believes he finds this meaning in the interpretations of Qatāda and al-Bayḍāwī. But neither seems to support his view, as they both assume that ḥammālat al-ḥaṭab stands for a real action carried out by the woman, be it gathering of fire-wood (Qatāda) or of thorns (al-Bayḍawī). Strangely enough, Fischer (p. 32) places al-Zamakhsharī's interpretation in a separate group, notwithstanding its resemblance to al-Bayḍāwī's interpretation, which is actually an abstract of the former.

78 Al-Suhaylī, , op. cit., II, 113Google Scholar.

79 Fischer has totally ignored this outstanding interpretation.

80 D. 542/1147. See Brockelmann, , GAL, Supp. I, 732Google Scholar.

81 Reste, 159 ff.

82 ibid., 165.

83 See Qur'ān CXIII, 4.

84 Wensinck, op. cit., s.v. ‘magic’.

85 See also Fischer, , op. cit., 35, 42Google Scholar; Lohmann, , art. cit., 346Google Scholar; Künstlinger, , art. cit., 408Google Scholar.

86 e.g. XVII, 29; XXXIV, 33; etc.

87 e.g. al-Suhaylī, , op. cit., II, 111 ffGoogle Scholar.

88 Il, 111.