Circumstances of Revelation
Place: Mecca, as the content of its verses indicates. → Introduction
Verses 1–10: Several narrations connect these verses with attempts on the Prophet's life. Imam al-Bāqir (in Tafsīr al-Qummī, on verse 9) says this was revealed about Abū Jahl and some of his clan: Abū Jahl came at the praying Prophet with a stone, and his hand was bound to his neck; a clansman who went next was struck with fear and turned back; and none of the Banū Makhzūm believed. Ibn ʿAbbās reports that al-Walīd b. al-Mughīrah was sent to kill him and could hear him reciting but not see him; and that when the Quraysh resolved to attack him for reciting loudly in the mosque their hands were stuck to their necks and they could not see, and verses 1–7 were revealed.
Al-Mizan's view: the verses themselves do not concord with these stories. They describe the two groups of people who hear the warning: those against whom the word has been proven true, and those who follow the reminder. Dividing the verses among separate incidents butchers their apparent meaning and unity; they were all revealed at one time for one purpose. This has no bearing on whether the stories happened, or on whether God miraculously protected the Prophet. → Narrations
Verse 12 (We record what they have sent forth and their footprints): Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Ibn ʿAbbās report that it was revealed when the Banū Salamah, or the Anṣār, living far from the mosque in Medina, wanted to move closer to it, and stayed where they were after hearing it. Al-Mizan: the same judgment applies to these two reports. → Narrations
Verses 78–79: Imam al-Ṣādiq said that they were revealed when Ubayy b. Khalaf crumbled an old bone and asked whether the dead would be raised again; similar reports come through many chains from Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿUrwah b. al-Zubayr, Qatādah, al-Suddī and ʿIkrimah, one version from Ibn ʿAbbās names the speaker as al-ʿĀṣ b. Wāʾil, and another as ʿAbd Allāh b. Ubayy. → 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.