(1–5) “In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. Ruined are the hands of Abū Lahab, and ruined is he! Neither his wealth nor what he earned availed him. He will burn in ⦗937⦘ a blazing Fire, as will his wife, the carrier of firewood, around whose neck is a rope of palm fiber.”

Abū Lahab was the uncle of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—but he was fiercely hostile [and harmful] toward the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He had neither religious devotion nor regard for kinship—may Allah disgrace him. Allah therefore condemned him with this severe condemnation, which will remain a disgrace upon him until the Day of Resurrection. He said, “Ruined are the hands of Abū Lahab,” meaning that his hands suffered loss and he became wretched; “and ruined is he”—he gained nothing. “Neither his wealth” that he possessed and that made him transgress, “nor what he earned availed him.” None of it repelled any part of Allah’s punishment when it descended upon him. “He will burn in a blazing Fire,” meaning that the Fire will surround him on every side—both him and “his wife, the carrier of firewood.”

She too was fiercely harmful toward the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. She and her husband cooperated in sin and aggression, sowed evil, and did everything within her power to harm the Messenger. She accumulated burdens of sin upon her back like one who gathers firewood, and a rope “of palm fiber”—that is, of fiber—was prepared for her neck.

Alternatively, she will carry firewood in the Fire for her husband, with a rope of palm fiber around her neck. Either way, this surah contains a brilliant sign among the signs of Allah. Allah revealed it while Abū Lahab and his wife were still alive, and declared that they would inevitably be punished in the Fire. This necessarily meant that they would never embrace Islam, and events unfolded exactly as the Knower of the unseen and the seen had declared.