Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the context of its verses indicates. Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan and Qatādah are reported to have said it is Meccan except for two verses (), revealed about the polytheists killed at Badr. Al-Mizan: those two verses are not overtly indicative of that context. → Introduction
Time: Before the verses on obligatory alms (zakāt) were revealed; the spending commanded in verse 31 is general charity in God's way. → Commentary on verse 31
Verses 28–29 (those who have exchanged Allah's blessing for ingratitude): Narrations from ʿAlī, ʿUmar and Ibn ʿAbbās say these are the wicked of Quraysh, the Banū al-Mughīrah (or Banū Makhzūm), dealt with at Badr, and the Banū Umayyah, given respite for a while; another from ʿAlī says it is Quraysh, who exchanged God's grace for disbelief and denied His Prophet at Badr. Al-Mizan's view: the verses are general, covering every leader of misguidance who leads his people to ruin, and the view that they are Medinan and limited to the leaders of Quraysh killed at Badr is flawed; the different applications in ʿAlī's statements show they explain the verse's general scope, not the reason for its revelation. → Commentary on verse 29 · Narrations
Verses 35–52: ʿAqīl b. Abī Ṭālib reports that when six men of the Anṣār met the Prophet at al-ʿAqabah and asked him to recite what had been revealed to him, he recited from Sūrah Ibrāhīm, from My Lord! Make this city a sanctuary (verse 35) to the end of the sūrah. → 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.