Bismillāh
إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرُ
Indeed, it is your enemy who is cut off [without posterity].
Sūrat al-Kawthar, No.108, Āyat 3
The Prophet sallallāhu ʿalayhī wa ālih had two sons from Khadījah ʿalayhā as-salām who both died in infancy: Qāsim and ʿAbd Allāh. The names Ṭayyib and Ṭāhir have also been mentioned as sons of the Prophet (s), however the com-mon opinion is that these are alqāb (epithets) for Qāsim and ʿAbd Allāh. For example, the sixth-century AH scholar Ṭabrisī claimed that they are both epithets for ʿAbd Allāh, while another scholar from the same century named Ibn Shahr Āshub mentioned that Ṭayyib referred to ʿAbd Allāh while Ṭāhir referred to Qāsim.
In any case, such losses must have been difficult to bear for the great soul of the Prophet (s). In a beautiful narration the Prophet (s) finds Khadījah (a) crying after Ṭāhir’s death and consoles her, saying:
Are you not pleased that you will find him standing at the gate of Paradise, and when he sees you, he will take your hand and admit you into Paradise, to the purest place and the most fragrant … God is too Noble and Generous to take from a servant the fruit of his heart, and then [that servant] endures patiently, seeks God’s reward, and praises God and then [God] punishes him.
Multiple narrations from Shīʿah and Sunnī sources mention that Sūrat al-Kawthar was revealed to console the Prophet (s) after he was mocked by ʿĀṣ bin Wāʾil, a prominent leader of the Quraysh in Makkah. Upon the death of ʿAbd Allāh, one report quotes ʿĀṣ saying the following about the Prophet (s): “His lineage has been cut off, so he is abtar (without posterity).”
The Arabic word shāniʾak is an active participle from the root sh-n-ʾ, denoting not mere dislike but intense hatred. The word abtar comes from batr, meaning to cut or sever, and specifically de-scribes an animal whose tail has been docked (trimmed). This term was an insult in Arabic, and evoked a sense of incomplete-ness, one whose line abruptly ended.
Note the double emphasis in the structure of the sentence: the particle inna in addition to the independent pronoun huwa (he), both add emphasis and exclusivity. This means that it is precisely ʿĀṣ bin Wāʾil, and no one else, who bears the description abtar. ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī draws attention to a rhetorical point here that the insult is not merely being denied, rather it is being redi-rected onto ʿĀṣ himself.
This sūrah offers an important reminder for believers that worldly measures of honour and success are not the true criteria of what endures. The Prophet’s only daughter became the source of abundant blessings for all and preserved his name and lineage. Her noble descendants fill the Muslim world until today and many of them are great leaders of the Muslim community. On the other hand, the name of the mocker has only survived as a foot-note attached to his own insult.
We pray that Allah gives us this understanding and the ability to remember that His will is all that matters. It is only if He wills that our efforts shall bear fruit and remain. On the anniversary of the martyrdom of Sayyidah Faṭimah (a), we ask that Allah fills our heart and the hearts of our children with her love and disassociates us from her enemies.
Sources: Allāmah Muhammad Husayn Tabātabā’ī, Tafsīr al-Mīzān.