Surah Al-Masad

The name. Al-Masad means "The Palm Fibre," or "The Twisted Rope," from the closing image of a rope of twisted fiber around the neck of the wife of Abu Lahab (111:5); the surah is also widely known as Al-Lahab, "The Flame," from the name of the man it condemns in its opening line. It is Meccan, and is unusual in the Quran for naming and cursing a specific living opponent of the Prophet rather than describing a type or a distant nation — Abu Lahab was the Prophet's own uncle, and his hostility to the message is addressed here by name.

What it is known for. The surah is known for its opening curse — may the hands of Abu Lahab be ruined, and ruined is he (111:1) — followed by the statement that neither his wealth nor his worldly gains will avail him (111:2), and the naming of his wife as well, described as a carrier of firewood, with a rope of twisted fiber around her neck (111:4-5), an image many readers understand as her own active role in hostility toward the Prophet rather than a detail added for its own sake. The surah is often cited as evidence that the Quran does, in this one case, single out a named individual for condemnation, something it otherwise avoids doing to contemporaries of the Prophet.

Reading it. At 5 ayahs it is one of the shortest surahs, read in under a minute. Because it names real people rather than describing a scene or a type, a first-time reader should treat it differently from the short surahs around it — less an image to reflect on than a historical account of open, personal opposition to the Prophet from within his own family, condemned here in the plainest terms the Quran uses anywhere.