Abu-Lahab, the man who made himself infamous and earned him a chapter in the Quran, where none of the Sahabah dream to have their names forever immortalised!! For what? For rejecting Muhammad’s message and making fun of him. Allah’s reaction is no short of a street boy! Swearing and insulting, even the man’s wife!!! And you want to tell me that the Quran was set in stone from the begining of time with this ridiculous story?
Quran Sourat Al Masad (Chapter 111) was the first time I stopped and asked myself…how can a god talk like this??
It is a short chapter that talks about one person, Abu Lahab a wealthy man that Khadijah suggested Muhammad try to win him.over. Early in the dawah, Muhammad had put huge hope on swaying Abu Lahab to support his call and fund his Dawah.
Muhammad pitch his message that he is a messager of God to group of people including Abu Lahab. Abu Lahab in no simple terms found it ridiculous and pointed at him and told him to perish .Muhammad was understandably furious and angry. If he was to write down his thoughts, he would have sweared and cursed Abu Lahab and go after his wife. However, a God who can see into the future would have sent a verse to angry Muhammad either to tell him “not to bother talking to Abu Lahab” or more importantly after their encounter to say “Do not worry, Allah is with you. You will succeed.”
But what did Allah say?
“May the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and he perish! (1) Neither his wealth nor ˹worldly˺ gains will benefit him.(2) He will burn in a flaming Fire,(3) and ˹so will˺ his wife, the carrier of ˹thorny˺ kindling,(4) around her neck will be a rope of palm-fibre* (5)”
*a reference to his wife being a former slave – a cheap insult coming from a god!!
Take a moment people and ask a simple question: is this Allah angry or Muhammad angry? And to go after the man’s wife? In unflattering words suggesting she was a dirty slave. That is no morality of an all-knowing God. That is what uncivilised and uneducated people do in an argument.
I remember the first time critically reading this verse I realised I had popped a question I never dared to ask “Did a god write this or a human?” I knew the answer….