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Sale, 1734

CHAP. CXI.
Intitled, Abu Laheb; revealed at Mecca.


In the name of the most merciful God.
THE hands of Abu Laheb shall perish [a] , and he shall perish [b] . [507] His riches shall not profit him, neither that which he hath gained [a] . He shall go down to be burned into flaming fire [b] ; and his wife also [c] , bearing wood [d] , having on her neck a cord of twisted fibres of a palm-tree.

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[a] The hand of Abu Laheb shall perish;] Abu Laheb was the surname of Abd’al Uzza, one of the sons of Abd’almotalleb, and uncle to Mohammed. He was a most bitter enemy to his nephew, and opposed the establishment of his new religion to the utmost of his power. When that prophet, in obedience to the command he had received to admonish his near relations [1] , had called them together, and told them he was a warner sent unto them before a grievous chastisement, Abu Laheb cried out, Mayest thou perish! Hast thou called us together for this? and took up a stone to cast at him. Whereupon this passage was revealed [2] .
By the hands of Abu Laheb some commentators, by a synecdoche, understand his person; others, by a metonymy, his affairs in general, they being transacted with those members; or his hopes in this world, and the next.

[1] See the Prelim. Disc. §. II. p. 43.

[2] Al Beidawi, Jallal. &c.

[b] And he shall perish;] He died of grief and vexation at the defeat his friends had received at Bedr, surviving that misfortune but 7 days [1] . They add, that his corpse was left aboveground three days, till it stank, and then some negro’s were hired to bury him [2] .

[1] Abulf. vit. Moh. p. 57.

[2] Al Beidawi.

[a] His riches shall not profit him;] And accordingly his great possessions, and the rank and esteem in which he lived at Mecca, were of no service to him, nor could protect him against the vengeance of God. Al Beidawi mentions also the loss of his son Otba, who was torn to pieces by a lion in the way to Syria, tho’ surrounded by the whole caravan.

[b] Flaming fire;] Arab . nâr dhât laheb; alluding to the surname of Abu Laheb, which signifies the father of flames.

[c] His wife;] Her name was Omm Jemîl: she was the daughter of Harb, and sister of Abu Sofiân.

[d] Bearing wood;] For fewel in hell; because she fomented the hatred which her husband bore to Mohammed; or, bearing a bundle of thorns and brambles, because she carried such, and strewed them by night in the prophet’s way [3] .

[3] Idem, Jallal.