Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Medina, as can be deduced from some narrations about the context of its revelation. → Introduction
The occasion: Narrations say a Jewish man cast a spell on the Prophet that made him ill; Gabriel then brought this sūrah and Sūrah al-Nās (al-miʿawwidhatān) and told him where the knot of the spell lay, in a well. The Prophet sent ʿAlī to bring it, and ʿAlī untied the knots while reciting the two sūrahs until the Prophet rose as if freed from a bond. Al-Mizan: many Sunni narrations say the same, with slight differences (several add that Zubayr and ʿAmmār went with ʿAlī), and there are further Shia narrations. To the objection that the Prophet was protected from magic (), the ʿAllāmah answers that bewitched there means possessed and made insane; there is no evidence that he was immune from magic harming his physical health. → Narrations
A summary prepared from Tafsīr al-Mīzān: where and when the sūrah was revealed, and the occasions reported for its verses, with the ʿAllāmah's view of them. Each point links to the full discussion.