Abu Lahab

Abu Lahab, whose given name was Abd al-Uzza, was a son of Abdul-Muttalib and an uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, the only one of the brothers born of his own mother. At the Prophet's ﷺ birth he rejoiced and freed his slave girl Thuwaybah, who then nursed the infant. Yet he later became one of the bitterest opponents of the message, and he and his wife are condemned by name in the Qurʾan in Surat al-Masad. It is related that Al-Abbas saw him in a dream after his death, given a few drops of water each day for that one good deed of freeing Thuwaybah.

Abū Lahab was the first person to publicly oppose and ridicule the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم attempted to first preach to the Banū Hāshim at a private dinner, Abū Lahab foiled it: sensing that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was about to make an announcement after the meal, he made an excuse and left before the speech could begin, causing others to also leave. A few days later at the second dinner, he was the only one who expressed open irritation at the message, speaking not to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم but to the people around him.

Then came the mountain of Ṣafāʾ. When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم finished his address to all of Quraysh, Abū Lahab bent down, picked up a handful of sand, and hurled it toward his nephew. He said, we seek Allah's refuge from these words: تَبًّا لَكَ يَا مُحَمَّد، أَلِهَذَا دَعَوْتَنَا؟, "May you be ruined, O Muḥammad, is this why you called us here?" Allah responded with Sūrat al-Lahab (111), the only sūrah in the Quran that curses a person by name. Every Muslim who recites this sūrah until the Day of Judgment invokes that curse upon him.

Despite all this, one narration in al-Ṭabarrānī's al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr records that on the night of the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم birth, Abū Lahab freed a slave girl out of joy, and that because of that single moment of genuine happiness at the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم birth, he receives two drops of water every Monday in the fire. Even in Jahannam, not a single good deed goes unrewarded.