وَٱمْرَأَتُهُۥ حَمَّالَةَ ٱلْحَطَبِ
In the biographical sources her name is given as Umm Jamīl, her given name as Arwā bint Ḥarb, and it is transmitted that she was the sister of Abū Sufyān. This information is not in the Qurʾān; it comes from the biographical and biographical-dictionary sources.
Even here the Qurʾān gives no name — the woman is named in relation to her husband. That is, the sūra's exception of "giving a name" is limited to a single person: Abū Lahab.
There is a difference of variant reading in this verse that affects the meaning, and it must be recorded.
In the widespread text of the muṣḥaf (the reading of ʿĀṣim, the transmission of Ḥafṣ) حَمَّالَةَ is read in the accusative. In most of the other readings it is transmitted as being read in the nominative (ḥammālatu).
| Reading | Grammar | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative (ḥammālatu) | An adjective or predicate of imraʾatuhu | "And his wife, the carrier of wood, (will enter that fire too)" — it attaches to the verb of the previous verse |
| Accusative (ḥammālata) | The accusative of dispraise — a separate construction for censure | "…and his wife too. That carrier of wood!" — the expression is cut off from the sentence and becomes an independent censure |
The classical explanation of the accusative reading is this: in Arabic a word may be taken out of the sentence's normal grammar and put independently in the accusative purely for the sake of censure or of praise. In that case the expression ceases to be an adjective and turns into a brand. In English it can be given by punctuation and tone: "and his wife too — that carrier of wood!"
The meaning arrives at the same place with both in the end; the difference is in the tone. The accusative reading is more emphatic and sharper.
Root ḥ-m-l: to take up a load, to carry. From the same root ḥaml (a load, and also pregnancy), ḥāmil (one who carries), ḥiml (burden).
The pattern: فَعَّالَة (faʿʿāla) — the feminine of the intensive form. This pattern in Arabic conveys continuity and occupation: not one who does a thing once but one who does it continuously, whose work this is. The Turkish loanword hamal, a porter whose trade is carrying, comes from this same pattern.
That is, the expression is not "a woman who carried wood" but "a woman who has made the carrying of wood her occupation". The act is given not as an event but as an identity.
Ḥaṭab: dry wood, brushwood gathered for burning. Not a living tree; something cut, dried, ready to be fuel.
"As for those who have deviated from the right way, they have become fuel for Hell." (al-Jinn 72/15)
Read together with these two verses, the fourth verse establishes a reversal: the one who carries the wood becomes, in the end, wood herself. The distance between the one who carries the fuel and the fuel closes.
| View | Ground | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Carrying thorns/brushwood in the literal sense | It is transmitted that she threw thorns and thorny brush onto the road the Prophet passed along, carrying and dumping them there | The view most widely transmitted in exegesis; it rests on a report, and the chains are of differing soundness |
| 2. A figure for tale-bearing (carrying words) | It is noted that in Arabic the image of carrying wood / throwing wood on a fire is used of a person who carries words back and forth to set people against one another | Strong on the side of the language; the link between "making a fire bigger" and "stirring up strife" is established in Arabic |
| 3. That she will carry wood in Hell | The punishment being of the same kind as the act in this world | It is among the explanations transmitted from the early generations; it has no explicit ground in the text |
| 4. A figure for the burden of sin | The Qurʾān describes sin as a load that is carried: "They bear their burdens on their backs" (al-Anʿām 6/31) | In accord with the Qurʾān's own world of imagery |
I adopt no preference among these views, nor is one needed. Two of them — the first and the second — support each other in particular: both describe the act of "making another's road harder", one on the physical and one on the verbal plane.
I should like to add an observation, and I state that this is my own inference: the force of the fourth verse comes from the word's being readable both concretely and figuratively. The one who carries thorns carries wood, and so does the one who carries tales. Neither of them lights the fire herself — someone else will light the fire; she only brings the material. This is the most widespread form of evil: not the one who burns, but the one who carries.
That the sūra names husband and wife together is also striking. The woman is named here not as an extension of her husband but by her own act — ḥammāla is an attribute belonging to her.
In the Qurʾān the naming of spouses together is generally in a positive context. Here a partnership in a negative direction is described: two people doing the same work together. This accords with the general frame the Qurʾān establishes regarding the relation of spouses — at al-Taḥrīm 66/10-11 examples are given both of one who was the wife of unbelievers and was saved (Pharaoh's wife) and of those who were the wives of prophets and were not saved. The bond neither saves nor condemns; what is decisive is the person's own stance.