Cheatsheet

Sūrah Al-MasadThe Palm Fibre · Makkah · 5 āyāt · 3 movements

One of the earliest Makkan surahs, revealed shortly after the Prophet ﷺ first proclaimed his message publicly at Mount Ṣafā. It names and condemns Abū Lahab, his uncle, and his wife Umm Jamīl for their open hostility to the daʿwah, declaring in advance — as a miracle of the Qurʾān — that both would perish as disbelievers, which duly came to pass.

Full study unit Practice papers Print sheet

At a glance

Āyāt	Movement	In one line
1–3	The doom of Abū Lahab: wealth could not save him	Open hostility to the truth, especially from one's own kin, is condemned by name in the Qurʾān itself.
4	His wife: a carrier of firewood, a carrier of malice	Harm to the daʿwah can take quiet, domestic forms — spite carried out with one's own hands, not only public speeches.
5	The rope of palm-fibre: fitting punishment for fitting crime	Allah's justice fits punishment to the nature of the crime, even in fine detail.

Occasion & setting

The Prophet ﷺ climbed Mount Ṣafā and called out to Quraysh by their clans, warning them of a severe punishment if they did not testify to lā ilāha illā Llāh. Abū Lahab, his own paternal uncle, responded with open contempt and cursed him in front of everyone.

— Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4770, 4801; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 208

Key messages

· Wealth and status are no defence against Allah's decree.
· Opposing the truth openly, even from within one's own family, invites Allah's own rebuttal.
· Allah's justice matches punishment to the exact nature of a person's crime.
· Support for wrongdoing, even by a spouse, is named and held to account in its own right.
· The Qurʾān's prophecy about Abū Lahab's death as a disbeliever was fulfilled exactly, a sign of its truth.
· Small, habitual acts of malice — like carrying firewood to harm someone — are not overlooked by Allah.
· Kinship with a prophet or righteous person does not itself grant salvation.
· The earliest public daʿwah met immediate hostility, yet the Qurʾān answered it immediately too.

Root vocabulary

ت ب ب

to perish, be ruined, cut off from all good

تَبَّ (he perished) · تَبَاب (utter ruin, loss) · تَبَّبَ (he brought to ruin)

ل ه ب

flame, blazing fire

1, 3

لَهَب (flame, blaze) · أَبُو لَهَب (Abū Lahab, 'father of flame') · مُلْتَهِب (blazing, ablaze)

ك س ب

to earn, acquire through effort

كَسَبَ (he earned) · كَسْب (earning, gain) · مُكْتَسِب (one who acquires)

ح م ل

to carry, bear a load

حَمَّالَة (female carrier, habitual bearer) · حِمْل (a load, burden) · حَامِل (one who carries)

ح ط ب

firewood, kindling

حَطَب (firewood) · حَاطِب (wood-gatherer) · ٱحْتَطَبَ (he gathered firewood)

م س د

twisted fibre, a strong cord of palm-fibre

مَسَد (twisted palm-fibre rope) · مَسَّدَ (he twisted (a rope) tightly)

Flip cards

17 cards over the roots, movements, takeaways and seerah events of this surah. Anything you mark “still learning” comes back before the deck ends.

Sūrah Al-Masad deck

1 / 17 · 0 known

Concept map

The surah at the centre, its movements in sequence around it, and the roots, seerah moments and messages that hang off each one. Tap a node to focus its connections — the same way a linked notebook shows you what a single idea touches.

Tap any node to focus it and dim everything it is not connected to — the movement it sits in, the roots that carry it, and the moment of the seerah it answers.