Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as its verses indicate. A report in Majmaʿ al-bayān from al-Ḥasan excepts verse 87 (the seven oft-repeated verses and the great Qur'an) and verse 90 (the dividers). → Introduction
Time: At the beginning of the public call. The sūrah contains So proclaim what you have been commanded, and turn away from the polytheists (), and narrations from Shia and Sunni sources say the Prophet kept his mission secret in the first years, until this verse was revealed; then he called people openly. Imam al-Ṣādiq says he stayed concealed for three of his thirteen years in Mecca; Ibn Masʿūd says he remained in secrecy until this verse came down. → Introduction · Narrations
Verse 24 (We know the predecessors among you and the successors): Marwān b. al-Ḥakam and Ibn ʿAbbās report that it was revealed about men who stood at the back of the prayer rows to look at a beautiful woman praying behind the Prophet. Al-Mizan: the verse plainly does not concern these situations, in wording or in context. Muqātil heard that it was revealed about fighting, and Muʿtamir's father answered that it was revealed before fighting was prescribed; Al-Mizan: that is, it is a Meccan verse. → Narrations
Verse 47 (brothers, on couches facing one another): Various reports say it was revealed about the people of Badr; about Abū Bakr and ʿUmar; about Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿAlī; or about ten Companions. Al-Mizan's view: these are the narrators' applications of the verse, not accounts of its revelation; its context, among verses on Adam, the angels and Iblīs, shows that it was not revealed about any of these individuals. Likewise the Prophet's reciting it about the Ahl al-Bayt is an application, not the occasion. → Narrations
Verse 49: Muṣʿab b. Thābit reports that it was revealed after the Prophet passed some laughing Companions and told them to remember paradise and hell. Al-Mizan: how the verse fits this supposed cause remains obscure. → Narrations
Verse 90, the dividers: A narration from Ibn ʿAbbās has the Prophet say they are the Jews and Christians, who believed in some of the Qur'an and disbelieved in the rest. Al-Mizan's view: this does not fit a Meccan sūrah revealed in the early days of the mission, before Islam faced the Jews and Christians; by the narrations, the dividers were disbelievers of Quraysh who called the Qur'an magic, ancient legends and fabrication, and Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq say they were Quraysh. → Commentary on verse 90 · Narrations
Verse 95 (We will suffice you against the deriders): Abān b. ʿUthmān names five mockers from Quraysh: al-Walīd b. al-Mughīrah, al-ʿĀṣ b. Wāʾil, al-Ḥārith b. Ḥanẓalah, al-Aswad b. ʿAbd Yaghūth and al-Aswad b. al-Muṭṭalib; when the verse was revealed, the Prophet knew they had been disgraced, and they died dreadful deaths. Al-Mizan: Sunni sources differ on their number, names and deaths; what both Sunni and Shia sources agree on is this account. → 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.