The flames
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Jump to navigationJump to search- Al-Lahab: (Arabic) The Flame, the title of Sura 111 of the Koran → cf. FW 425.32 a hundred an eleven other things
Commentary
Joyce's hostility to the Koran is shown in his reference to Sura 111, Abu Lahab, or "Flame". This sura, one of the shortest, consists entirely of a declaration that Abu Lahab shall be burned and his wife laden with the wood for his pyre. Joyce gives both the name and number of the sura in his reply: "and a hundred and eleven other things ... I will commission to the flames...." ... Mohammed is here considered as one symbol for Shem.
J. S. Atherton, Islam and the Koran in Finnegans Wake
