Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the content of its verses shows. Some exegetes made exceptions of verses 73 and 76; al-Ḥasan of verses 26, 32, 33, 57 and 78; Muqātil of verses 60, 73, 76, 80 and 107; and a report from Ibn ʿAbbās of verses 73–80. Al-Mizan: the content and themes of the verses bear no indication of a Medinan sūrah, and none of its laws concern matters revealed only in Medina; similar laws were revealed in Meccan sūrahs such as al-Anʿām and al-Aʿrāf. → Introduction
Verse 1, the night journey: The scholars agree that the night journey took place in Mecca before the migration, as the verse indicates and as the many reports of the Prophet telling Quraysh about it the next morning confirm. Its year is disputed (from the second year of the mission to six months before the migration); Al-Mizan: there is no reliable evidence for the date, and some narrations from the Imams state that there were two night journeys. The journey to Bayt al-Maqdis began from the Sacred Mosque, as the verse plainly says; the starting point at Umm Hānī's house may belong to the other journey, while the mountain pass of Abū Ṭālib does not fit the accounts. The night journey was in body and spirit, and Al-Mizan rejects the reports that make it a dream (from Muʿāwiyah) or a journey of the spirit only (from ʿĀʾishah, who joined the Prophet as his wife only after the migration). → A summary of the narrations · Narrations · Key Debate
Verses 2–8, the Israelites: Al-Mizan: the narrations on the original story behind these verses differ so astonishingly that they cannot be relied upon, and he does not cite them. → Narrations
Verse 53: Al-Kalbī reports that when the polytheists harassed the Companions in Mecca and they asked the Prophet for permission to fight back, he said he had not been commanded to, and God revealed And say to My servants…. → Narrations
Verse 59: Ibn ʿAbbās reports that the people of Mecca asked the Prophet to turn Mount al-Ṣafā to gold and push back the mountains around Mecca; given the choice, he preferred that they be granted respite rather than destroyed if they denied, and the verse was revealed. → Narrations
Verse 60, the vision and the cursed tree: Numerous reports, in some Sunni sources and unanimously from the Ahl al-Bayt, say the verse was revealed after the Prophet dreamed of the Umayyads (or the children of al-Ḥakam b. al-ʿĀṣ) leaping on his pulpit like monkeys, and that the cursed tree is their line; ʿĀʾishah is reported to have told Marwān b. al-Ḥakam that the Prophet called his father and grandfather the cursed tree in the Qur'an. Al-Mizan's view: this follows directly from the verse itself, and is not a hidden interpretation. He rejects the report from Ibn ʿAbbās that the vision was the night journey and the tree Zaqqūm, and the report that it was the dream of entering Mecca, which came after the migration while this verse was revealed in Mecca. → Commentary on verse 60 · Narrations · Key Debate
Verses 73–75: Reports say the verses were revealed when the polytheists asked the Prophet to stop disparaging their gods and to drive away the poor believers; when Umayyah b. Khalaf, Abū Jahl and others asked him to touch their gods; when Thaqīf asked for a year's respite for their idols; or, from Imam al-Ṣādiq, when Quraysh asked him at the conquest of Mecca to spare the idol on al-Marwah. Al-Mizan's view: the reports of touching their gods, of Thaqīf and of the idol on al-Marwah do not agree with the Qur'an, since the verses deny that the Prophet even came near to inclining toward them; moreover the last accounts concern events after the migration, while the sūrah was revealed in Mecca. → Narrations
Verses 76 and 80: Al-Mizan's view: verse 76 refers to the polytheists' attempt to drive the Prophet out of Mecca; the view that it refers to the Jews wanting to expel him from Medina is unlikely, since the sūrah is Meccan and his struggle with the Jews came after the migration. Nor is there evidence that the entering and exiting of verse 80 mean the migration to Medina and the departure for the conquest of Mecca. → Commentary on verse 76 · Commentary on verse 80
Verse 85, the spirit: Ibn ʿAbbās reports that Quraysh, at the suggestion of the Jews, asked the Prophet about the spirit, and the verse was revealed. Other reports, from ʿAbd-Allāh b. Masʿūd and others, say the Jews asked the question in Medina, where the verse was revealed. Al-Mizan: that does not fit the sūrah being Meccan and the unity of its verses. → Narrations
Verses 90–93: Ibn ʿAbbās gives a long account of the leaders of Quraysh meeting the Prophet behind the Kaʿbah and demanding signs, and says these verses were revealed about what ʿAbd-Allāh b. Abī Umayyah told him. Al-Mizan: the conversations in that narration do not match the apparent sense of the verses; several Shia and Sunni chains name ʿAbd-Allāh b. Abī Umayyah al-Makhzūmī, brother of Umm Salamah, as their spokesman. → Narrations
Verse 110: Ibn ʿAbbās reports that when the Prophet prayed in Mecca, O Allāh, O Raḥmān, the polytheists accused him of calling on two gods, and Say: Call upon Allah or call upon the Beneficent was revealed; Al-Mizan: of the reports on its occasion, this one best matches the content of the verse. Imams al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq report that do not utter your prayer with a very raised voice was revealed because the polytheists in Mecca would hear the Prophet praying aloud and come to harass him. → 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.