Lahab is an Arabic word distinct from the related nar, meaning fire. It describes the visible flame rising from fire and its motion, from flicker to engulfment.
These meanings emerge from the root letters lam, ha and ba, which carry meanings connected to burning, blazing and flaring up.
From the same root come lahib, meaning blaze or intense heat; iltihab, meaning inflammation and used by doctors as part of a diagnosis; and alhaba, meaning to inflame, ignite or fire up.
Such an evocative description allows the word to move freely into metaphor. Lahib al-asaar, meaning the blaze of prices, is a common Arabic phrase for soaring costs or inflation.
In poetry and song, lahib can describe powerful emotion. Lahib Al Shoq the name of a 1997 track by Sudanese singer Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, means the flame of longing, while lahib al-hubb is the flame of love and lahib al-ghadab is the blaze of anger.
Lahab also carries religious resonance. The word appears in the 111th chapter of the Quran in Surah Al Masad, which names Abu Lahab, meaning father of flame, one of the Prophet Mohammed’s fiercest early opponents.
The force of the word comes from how the image is used. Abu Lahab is warned of naran dhat lahab, or a flaming fire, making the word a symbol of warning, destruction and the consequences of arrogance.
These uses and associations show that the word often appears in more formal and literary contexts than nar. But as the summer holiday season begins and the weather heats up, expect descriptions such as lahib al-shams, meaning the blazing heat of the sun, alongside phrases describing a crisis as multahib, or inflamed, and a crowd as alhaba, fired up, by a speech or performance.
Used to describe, diagnose and warn, lahab is the word for something burning with emotional and physical force and fury.
