Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, the whole sūrah, as the context and contents of its verses show. → Introduction
Claims of Medinan verses: Al-Kalbī and Muqātil are reported to hold that it is Meccan except the last verse, revealed in Medina about ʿAbd-Allāh b. Salām; al-Ḥasan, ʿIkrimah and Qatādah that it is Medinan except verse 31 and the verse after it; and others that the Medinan part is The faithless will continue to be visited by catastrophes… (). Al-Mizan: all three are refuted. The end of the sūrah closely matches its opening () and so belongs to the same context; the contents do not fit the circumstances in Medina after the Emigration; and verse 31 is explained within the Meccan setting. → Introduction · Commentary on verse 31
Verse 7 (You are only a warner, and there is a guide for every people): Many Shia and Sunni narrations report the Prophet saying, "I am the warner, and ʿAlī is the guide" (some say he said it when the verse was revealed). Al-Mizan: the verse refers to ʿAlī as an application (jarī) of its meaning, and it applies in the same way to the rest of the Imams; this is what the reports that it "was revealed about ʿAlī" mean. → Narrations · Key Debate
Verses 8–13: Ibn ʿAbbās reports that Arbad b. Qays and ʿĀmir b. al-Ṭufayl came to the Prophet in Medina and plotted to kill him; Arbad was killed by lightning and ʿĀmir died of an ulcer, and these verses were revealed. Another report says verse 13 (He releases the thunderbolts) came down when a tyrant of the Arabs who mocked the Prophet's call was struck by lightning. Al-Mizan: the claim that these verses were revealed in these stories does not suit the verses, which appear to be Meccan, nor their tone; and there is no basis for splitting verse 13 into parts. → Narrations
Verse 30 (Yet they defy the All-Beneficent): Ibn Jurayj and Qatādah report that it was revealed at Ḥudaybiyyah, when Quraysh refused to write "the All-Beneficent" in the treaty. Al-Mizan: the verses in their context are Meccan, while the Peace of Ḥudaybiyyah came after the Emigration; nor does it make sense for one part of the verse to be about Ḥudaybiyyah and the rest about other events. → Narrations
Verse 31: ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī reports, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the polytheists asked why the mountains of Mecca were not moved for them, their land smoothed out, or their dead brought to life, and God sent down If only it were a Qur'an whereby the mountains could be moved… → Narrations
Verse 43 (and he who possesses the knowledge of the Book): Some reports, including one from his grandson, say that ʿAbd-Allāh b. Salām held that it was revealed about him; many narrations from the Imams say it refers to ʿAlī, and Saʿīd b. Jubayr answered, "How could it be, when this sūrah is Meccan?" Al-Mizan's view: the verse, like the rest of the sūrah, is Meccan, and cannot refer to Ibn Salām or other scholars of the People of the Book who embraced Islam only after the Emigration; the mere possibility that a verse is Medinan proves nothing without a credible narration, and this verse closes a sūrah to whose opening it is connected. Al-Shaʿbī is reported to say that nothing of the Qur'an was revealed about ʿAbd-Allāh b. Salām. → Commentary · Narrations · Key Debate
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.