Abu Lahab was born in Mecca in c. 549 CE, the son of Abdul Muttalib, chief of the Hashim clan, and the paternal uncle of Muhammad.
[2] People from the Banu Khuza'ah were the caretakers of the Kaaba for several centuries before the Quraysh took over the responsibility through their ancestor Qusayy ibn Kilab.
Abu Lahab was also related to Muhammad as half-uncle in another way, since Muḥammad's grandmother was Fāṭimah bint ‘Amr of the Banu Makhzūm.
[2] He married Arwā Umm Jamīl bint Harb, sister of Abu Sufyān (Sakhr), whose father Ḥarb was chief of the Banu Umayyah.
[8] When Muhammad announced that he had been instructed by Allah to spread the message of Islam openly, the Quran told him to warn his kinsfolk about divine punishment.
Through a deep sense of animosity, Abu Lahab violated this ‘Arab tradition and took the side of non-Muslim Quraysh clans.
[5] Abu Talib died in 620,[19] From this time, Muhammad went around the trade fairs and markets to tell the Arab tribes that he was a prophet and call them to worship Allah.
Abu Lahab used to follow him around the fairs, saying, "This fellow wishes only to get you to strip off Al-Lat and Al-Uzza from your necks and your allies of the Malik ibn Uqaysh tribe for the misleading innovation he has brought.
As per Islamic sources, when the rest of the Quraysh went to Badr to protect the merchant-caravan carrying their property from an expected attack, Abu Lahab remained in Mecca, sending in his place Amr Bin Hisham's brother al-‘Āṣ ibn Hishām who owed him 4,000 dirhams that he could not pay.
[22] The first people to reach Mecca with the news of the Quraysh defeat in the Battle of Badr were al-Haysuman and 'Abdullāh ibn al-Khuzā'ī, who bewailed the fact that so many of their chieftains had fallen on the battlefield.
A small crowd gathered around the two as Abū Sufyān told his uncle, "The facts are the Quraysh met our enemy and turned their backs.
I cannot blame our tribesmen because they faced not only them but men wearing white robes riding piebald horses, who were between heaven and earth.
(A.Guillaume, Life of Muhammad, 2007, p 310) At the other end of the tent, a Muslim freedman named Abu Rafi' and Abbas's wife Lubaba sat sharpening arrows.
When they heard the news of the men in white riding between heaven and earth, they could no longer contain their happiness, and Abu Rafi' exclaimed: "They were angels!"
Lubaba grabbed a nearby tent pole and hit her brother-in-law over the head, crying: "Do you think that you can abuse him just because Abbas is away?"
According to Islamic sources, Lubaba wounded Abu Lahab so severely that his head was split open, laying bare part of his skull.
He told them that he had experienced no comfort in the Afterlife, but that his sufferings had been remitted "this much" (indicating the space between his thumb and index finger) because of his one virtuous deed of manumitting his slave Thuwayba, who had briefly nursed Muhammad as foster-mother.
[24] In Islamic tradition, Abu Lahab is believed to be described in Surat al-Masad ("The Palm Fibre"), the 111th surah in the Quran, as a reaction to an incident he was involved in, in relation to Muhammad,[9] although there is controversy as to whether the Arabic phrase abu lahab ("flame keeper"), in the context of the Quran, refers to 'Abd al-'Uzza ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, or something else.
[25] The whole surah may be read as:[26] Umm Jamil is thought to have been called "the bearer of the wood" because she is said to have carried thorns and cast them in Muhammad's pathway.