What happened to Abu Lahab’s wife?

The Details of the Question

- I want to ask what happened to Abu Lahab’s wife after his death. I tried to find the death of Abu Lahab’s wife on the internet but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Did she die as an unbeliever?
- I heard that Abu Lahab’s son became a Muslim, but what happened to Abu Lahab’s wife after his death?
- How did she die? Did she become a Muslim or did she die as an unbeliever as the Quran states?

The Answer

Dear Brother / Sister,

Islamic scholars may not have needed further research into how they died since it is a clearly stated fact in the Quran. However, because Abu Lahab died immediately after the Battle of Badr, they may have mentioned him in that context. The person who really tortured the Prophet (pbuh) was Abu Lahab. His wife supported him.

In the Quran, Abu Lahab is mentioned in the first three verses of the chapter and his wife is mentioned in the last two verses.

Since it is clear that the man died as an unbeliever, it is not doubted that his wife followed him and that her death was thought to be in the same way; therefore, it may not have been mentioned separately.

Ibn Ashur states that Abu Lahab’s wife died as a polytheist (mushrik). (see at-Tahrir wat-Tanwir, the relevant place)

Similarly, there are important Arabic articles stating that Abu Lahab’s wife died as an unbeliever too. Accordingly, as a punishment for the torture she inflicted on the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), this woman saw her son Utba’s head cut off by a lion or a bear after seeing her husband’s terrible death. Then, she saw with her own eyes that her two children became Muslims during the conquest of Mecca. While she was writhing in pain after all those sad events, once, while she was trying to carry thorny grass by putting a rope, which is described as “rope of palm-leaf fiber round her neck” in the Quran, round her neck, she suddenly fell down and the rope around her neck squeezed her throat, causing her to die as a polytheist. (see al-Bayan, Umm Jamil Fil-Quran; Fatima Ali, Qissatu Umm Jamil, Zawjatu Abu Lahab)

According to those determinations, in addition to the interpretation of the scholars who say that the verse “A twisted rope of palm-leaf fiber round her (own) neck” is a description of her state in Hell, it is also considered a sign that she would be strangled and executed by the rope she used to torture the Prophet (pbuh) while carrying thorny wood at the time of her death...

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