al-Masad 111:1

Tabbat yadā Abī Lahabin wa tabb "May the two hands of Abū Lahab wither; and wither they did."

Root t-b-b. The dictionaries give these senses: to suffer loss, to come to ruin, to be cut off, to diminish, to dry up and go, to perish.

The most emphasised side of the word is that the loss is not momentary but continuous; in the lexicographical tradition tabāb is explained as "being in continuous loss". That is, not a one-time damage but a diminishing that flows on and cannot be halted.

No single English word carries it exactly. "May they wither" catches the side of the root that means drying up and becoming useless, and English builds curses in just this shape — "may his hands wither". Renderings such as "let it come to nothing", "let it be in vain", "may nothing come of his hand" are also used.

Its other uses in the Qurʾān are within the same frame, and both are in the context of a scheme or a plan:

• "And the scheming of Pharaoh was nothing but ruin" (Ghāfir 40/37).
• "…they added nothing to them but ruin" (Hūd 11/101) — of what the destroyed peoples worshipped.

In both, the word describes an effort that comes to nothing. Labour has been spent, and the result is zero or less. This sets the direction of the sūra's first word: the first thing said about Abū Lahab is not "he is wicked" but "what he does will come to nothing".

Why are the person's hands named rather than the person himself?

The hand is the organ of action and of gain. In Arabic yad is used figuratively for power, work, capacity, possession, favour. The Qurʾān uses this figure constantly:

• "For what your hands have earned" (al-Shūrā 42/30).
• "That is for what your hands have sent ahead" (al-Ḥajj 22/10).
• "Do not cast yourselves into destruction with your own hands" (al-Baqara 2/195).

In these usages "hand" represents the act itself — naming a part and meaning the whole (majāz mursal). "May his two hands wither" therefore means "may everything he does come to nothing". The imprecation is directed not at the person's existence but at his production.

Why the dual? Not "his hand" but "his two hands". In Arabic the dual conveys completeness and comprehensiveness: not one of his hands but both, that is, in such a way that nothing he might do is left outside. The person's entire capacity for action is covered in a single expression.

Some exegetes say that by "the two hands" the person himself is directly meant; in terms of the resulting sense the difference is not great.

The same verb is repeated, this time not for the hands but for the person himself: wa tabb — "and he too withered / came to ruin".

In the classical grammatical analyses a difference of function is seen between these two verbs:

That is, the sentence first frames a wish and then announces that the wish has come about. Imprecation and ruling in the same sentence, one after the other. This is a structure seen in the other places where the Arabic pattern of imprecation is carried into the Qurʾān: "May man perish, how ungrateful he is!" (ʿAbasa 80/17) — the form is imprecation, the content is a ruling.

That the second verb is in the perfect also conveys certainty. The Qurʾān tells of things that have not yet come about but are certain in the past tense (this method was seen in Sūrat al-Naṣr as well). Here the perfect says that the ruling is closed to debate.

A note on sound: the sentence begins with tabbat and ends with tabb. The first verse closes a circle within itself and, striking the same word twice, establishes the rhythm of the sūra.

Now we come to the most delicate piece of language-work in the sūra.

What is a kunya? In Arabic a kunya is a name of address built on the pattern "Abū …" (father of) or "Umm …" (mother of). It is generally built with the name of the person's eldest child (as with Abū Bakr), but it may also derive from a characteristic, a habit or a comparison. The kunya was more widely used than the given name in Arab society, and it was generally an expression of respect.

Abū Lahab's given name. In the biographical and biographical-dictionary sources it is given as ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. Al-ʿUzzā was one of the three great idols around Mecca; it is named in the Qurʾān together with al-Lāt and Manāt (al-Najm 53/19-20). That is, the man's given name means, word for word, "servant of al-ʿUzzā".

Why did the Qurʾān use the kunya? The grounds worked through in the classical commentaries:

1. The given name declared servitude to an idol. The Qurʾān does not register an idol's name as a human being's identity within a text that establishes the divine unity. The use of the kunya makes it possible to avoid pronouncing that name.

2. He was better known by his kunya. For the addressees no ambiguity remains as to who is meant.

3. And the principal reason: the kunya already overlapped with the subject of the sūra.

The word لَهَب, root l-h-b: to blaze, to catch fire. Lahab is the smokeless, pure flame part of a fire — the brightest and most burning place of a fire. From the same root ilhāb (setting alight), lahīb (flame).

That is, the kunya means, word for word, "father of the flame". It is transmitted in the biographical sources that this kunya came from the redness and brightness of his face; this is a report, and it is not certain.

The upshot is this: a kunya the man bore throughout his life, and which was probably a source of pride — a name suggesting brightness, beauty or fieriness — turns into something else inside the sūra. We shall see in the third verse how this word comes back.

A note on the variant readings. A small difference among the imāms of the variant readings is transmitted in the pronunciation of the word in the kunya (lahab / lahb). It does not change the meaning.