Al-Masad المسد
The Palm Fibre
Al-Masad is the Quran's only surah naming a specific individual as condemned by name while he was still alive: Abu Lahab, the Prophet's ﷺ own paternal uncle and one of his fiercest opponents in Makkah. "Lahab" means flame — commentators note his name itself becomes his sentence, since the surah promises he will burn in a fire that matches it. His wife is named too, without being named — "the firewood-carrier," understood as a reference to her habit of scattering thorns on the Prophet's ﷺ path, carrying a rope of masad, twisted palm fibre, around her own neck in the Fire as she once carried firewood on her back. The surah was revealed after Abu Lahab publicly mocked the Prophet's ﷺ first call to his own clan — a sharp, early example of the Quran answering a specific act of hostility directly and by name.
تَبَّتْ يَدَآ أَبِى لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ
May the hands of Abu Lahab be ruined! May he be ruined too!
مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥ وَمَا كَسَبَ
Neither his wealth nor his gains will help him:
سَيَصْلَىٰ نَارًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ
he will burn in the Flaming Fire––
وَٱمْرَأَتُهُۥ حَمَّالَةَ ٱلْحَطَبِ
and so will his wife, the firewood-carrier,
فِى جِيدِهَا حَبْلٌ مِّن مَّسَدٍۭ
with a palm-fibre rope around her neck.
Arabic text and translation (M.A.S. Abdel Haleem) via the Quran.Foundation API.
Frequently asked
Five verses.
Meccan, revealed in Makkah.
The Prophet's ﷺ paternal uncle and a prominent opponent of his message in Makkah — Al-Masad is the only surah to condemn a named individual while they were still living.
"The palm fibre" — referring to the twisted rope of palm fibre (masad) around the neck of Abu Lahab's wife, described in the surah's final verse.