Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, without a doubt, as the content of its verses shows and by the consensus of the exegetes; every verse of the sūrah is Meccan. → Introduction · Narrations on verse 96
Order: Sūrah Āl ʿImrān, which tells the story of Zachariah at the end of its account of Mary, is Medinan and was revealed after this Meccan sūrah. → Commentary on verses 5–6
Verses 64–65: Al-Mizan: these two verses read as a digression from the rest of the sūrah: they are the words of the angel of revelation, revealed as Qur'an. This lends support to the report, through several Sunni chains and in Majmaʿ al-bayān from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet felt Gabriel was slow in coming and asked him about it, and Gabriel answered with We do not descend except by the command of your Lord. The ʿAllāmah rejects the exegetes' attempts to tie these verses to what comes before as unsupported by the context, but then offers his own explanation: after bringing down the sūrah's first sixty-three verses, the angel told the Prophet that he descends only by his Lord's command, so the two verses reinforce what precedes them and are not a complete digression. He considers this more fitting to the verses than the reports about the occasion of revelation, with their inconsistencies and weakness. → Introduction · Commentary on verse 65
Verses 77–80: Imam al-Ṣādiq says verse 77 refers to al-ʿĀṣ b. Wāʾil, and Khabbāb b. al-Aratt reports that verses 77–80 were revealed about him; al-ʿĀṣ owed Khabbāb money and mocked him: he would repay him in paradise, where he would have wealth and children; similar reports come from other Companions. Al-Mizan: these narrations do not fit the verses, which answer the claim with reasoned argument, as one answers something said in earnest, not in mockery. → Commentary on verse 77 · Narrations
Verse 96 (for them the Beneficent will bring about love): Shia and Sunni narrations say it was revealed about ʿAlī, after the Prophet taught him to pray for love in the hearts of the believers; some Sunni narrations say it was about those who migrated to Ethiopia. Al-Mizan: the general wording of the verse is intended. Rūḥ al-maʿānī says that on the ʿAlī interpretation the verse would have to be Medinan; the ʿAllāmah answers that nothing in these hadiths indicates that the story took place in Medina. A report from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf, that it was revealed when he grieved after migrating to Medina, is explicitly Medinan and so is refuted by the consensus that the whole sūrah is Meccan. → Commentary on verse 96 · 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.